The Southern Wolf
by erickmenk
Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came t
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

**CHAPTER 1**

_The Boy In the Ice_

_---How come every time you mess with magic water, I get soaked?---_

_---You just like, sneeze and flew ten feet into the air!---_

_---And this is my Katara, my flying sister.---_

_---Katara, are you really going to choose him over your village? Your family?---_

_---KATARA HE'S FLYING! HE'S ACTUALLY FLYING! HE'S . . . Er, um, cough, so he's flying. Big deal.---_

_**SPLASH**_

"AHHHHH! Coldcoldcoldcoldcold! Brrrrrrrrrrrr! Katara, what the heck was that for?" A grouchy and wet Sokka shouted only to stop dead in his tracks upon seeing her red eyed looking sister holding a dripping empty bucket. She had been crying, but why?

"You had it coming. Have you any idea how worried we were finding you passed out at th penguin fields, again?" Katara, after saying her piece, gave her brother a slap on the cheek, then a hug, and then a knock on the head before she step out of the tent, leaving her brother alone with their grandmother.

Grumbling as he put a hand on his stinging cheek and head, he decided to turn to his grandmother, only to cringe seeing her grave face staring at him. "Um, hi, Gran Gran."

"Don't hi me, Sokka. What were you thinking exhausting yourself once again for such worthless pursuits?"

"Gran Gran, weapons training is not worthless."

"It is if it could result in your death! That last stunt of yours had put you in a coma for the last three days."

Sokka cringed at that. He didn't know his latest stunt had put him in a coma. But still, he felt his trainings would be vital for the future. He still couldn't figure out why only it has something to do with those dreams he had been having lately.

"Look, Gran Gran, I had, no, I need to do this."

"But why, my grandson? You've been training yourself to exhaustion ever since your father left with the rest of the men of our tribe. You've even been training your sister in the use of her water bending through trial and error, and although she made great progress, it still doesn't explain why you're so set on doing all of this."

Giving a sigh of defeat, he said, "I know, Gran Gran. I would like to explain it myself but I can't. I'm sorry."

Kana stared at her grandson's forlorn face and found no deception in them. Giving off a sigh of defeat, she said, "It's not just me you should apologize to. Your sister had been worried sick when she brought you back."

Sokka nodded at that. Ever since their mother died, Katara had been acting as a mother to both of them. She could be a real worry-wart sometimes. Sighing, he nodded at his grandmother and said, "Fine. I'll go find her."

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"Stupid, bone-headed, suicidal, worthless Sokka! I can't believe he did it again! Don't that moron know any better than making me worry for his stupid, bone headed, moronic . . ." It was just some of the many adjectives that she had been using to describe her brother as she practice her water bending skills away from the village to let out some steam.

Doing kata after kata, the ice and water around her couldn't help moving through a destructive dance around her, floating water swirling like a typhoon and ice cracking everywhere, perfectly going in tune with her bad mood.

Suddenly, she heard the tail tale sign of several familiar sounds approaching from all around her. Letting instincts take over, she dropped down into the icy ground just in time to avoid being hit by a familiar boomerang that passed by her head. Then, pushing on all four, she jumped up and barely dodging another two boomerang that passed by underneath her. While still in mid air, she used her water bending skills to form a shield of ice on each arm that she used to block the same two boomerangs that she avoided barely seconds ago from slashing her from both sides. Her shields were destroyed but it they were enough to deflect the said boomerangs dead in their tracks.

As soon as her foot touched the snow, she caught the two falling boomerangs in each hand and used them to deflect four other boomerangs that were flying towards her from all sides. Successfully doing just that, she then threw the two boomerangs on each hand on a wide arc behind her, where Sokka caught both boomerangs easily.

"Sokka, what the hell do you think you're doing?" She shouted in aggravation, glaring daggers at her frowning brother who's holding out four identical boomerangs in his hands.

Wait, four?

Looking down on her feet, she saw the two missing boomerang had pinned the fabric of her pants on the ground. She tried to pull her feet free but all it did is make her lose her balance to fall on her behind, her feet still pinned into the ground.

"You should be more aware of your surrounding, sis." Sokka said smugly as he walks towards her.

Glaring, she said, "That wasn't funny, Sokka! And what the heck are you doing out of bed?"

"I heal fast. You know that." He pulled the boomerang pinning her sister and placed his weapons into their respected sheaths on the side of his pants before offering his now free hand to help his sister up.

Still pissed, she slaps away his hand and stood up herself before turning her back on her brother.

Sighing at his sister's temper, he said, "Look, Katara, I'm sorry about the whole being in a coma thing."

Sokka must have said something wrong because Katara turned her glare to him so fast that he took an involuntary step back. "Coma thing? Coma Thing? Is that all it is to you? You could have Died you bone headed moron!"

Raising his hands in surrender, he said quickly, "I know. I know. But I didn't. You should be happy about that at least."

"Happy? How the hell do you expect me to be happy about you almost dying? Do you have any idea how worried I am finding you almost frozen to death? I can't even imagine what dad would say if he came home and find out I let you freeze to death playing soldier."

"Katara, I aint playing soldier."

"Well it sure feels like it. I mean, come on! I'm grateful for the help in developing my waterbending skills but you're exhausting yourself to death with all the training you've been doing. Let's not forget about that time you almost died going into that Fire Nation ship to make those boomerangs of yours."

Sokka cringe at the memory. His boomerangs have a very simple design. They are a foot and a half in length, a hundred and twenty degrees angle, a sharpened edge on one side and a hand size handle at one tip. Its designed could allow him to use the boomerang like inclined daggers when he needs to. He had went into the abandoned fire nation ship and used its furnace to forge himself his boomerang using the metal from parts of the ship. He spent almost an entire week there, never resting, or sleeping, or eating, just to finish those weapons. He can't even remember where he learned to be blacksmith. He almost exhausted himself to death when he finally returned to the village, only to collapse before he reached the village entrance.

Katara kept ranting, listing all his faults as well as little thing she hates about him. He knows that it's her way to let off steam so he let her. Although, did she really have to bring up how he keeps wetting his bed till he was four?

Several minutes later, he sighed in relief when her ranting is finally starting to subside. Katara really does have a healthy pair of lungs. And the violent tremor of water and ice behind her are starting to subside as well.

"And you still haven't told me why you keep insisting on doing all these training to begin with. Don't even think about using that 'Tui and La sent me a vision' excuse."

Sokka groaned internally at that. Making an excuse of having the spirits of the ocean and the moon sending him visions as a reason to train seems a really good idea at the time. Too bad Katara saw that lie miles away.

Finally, Katara seems to have run out of air. She was breathing heavily while at the same time, glaring daggers at him.

"So, are you finished?" He asked in a flat voice.

She gave him one more glare before nodding her head.

"That's good. Now come on. It's our turn to go fishing for dinner." He then dragged his still pouting sister back to the village.

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"Watch carefully, Katara. This is how you catch a fish." Sokka said in front on the canoe as he let his boomerangs fly. All six of them skimmed the surface of the water before flying back to him. He caught all six weapons expertly in his hands and sheathed them before five moderate size fishes floated on the surface of the water. All fish have a slash wound on their bodies courtesy of the boomerangs.

He turned around to give his sister a smug look only to pout upon seeing her bending a globe of floating water filled with at least seven large size fishes.

"Show off." He grumbled as she gave him a smug look as she bent the water to place the first six fishes into the wooden catch basin in the middle of the canoe. But the last fish managed to wiggle out of her control, causing her to lose focus and drop the remaining globe of floating water on top of her brother's head.

"Darn it, Katara! Why does every time you play with magic water, I get soaked?" He complained as he placed the last of the seven fishes into the basin.

"It's not magic. It's water bending. It's . . ."

"Yeah. Yeah. A lost art exclusive to our culture. Blah. Blah. Blah. You don't need to lecture me on it. I've been helping you develop it for a while now, you know." He said as he row the canoe towards his catches. He picked up the fishes and placed them into the basin as he said, "If I were you, I'd keep my weird need to use it to a minimum."

Katara scoff and said, "You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who keeps looking at my reflection making muscles at myself."

Sokka, who had doing just that while holding the last of the fish he caught, pouted and was about to make a comeback when the canoe suddenly jolted forwards by the rapids, icebergs getting dangerously close to their boat.

Both siblings grabbed a paddle and row the boat out of harms way.

"Darn it!" Sokka cursed as he tries his best to steer the canoe away from the closing icebergs.

"Left! Left!" KAtara shouted in panic, rowing as well.

For several minutes, they managed to steer the canoe out of the way. But the rapid was too strong so the canoe made an unwanted turn to the right between two closing in ice bergs. They manage to jump off of the canoe before the icebergs crushed it between them.

As soon as things stopped moving, Katara and Sokka found themselves sitting on top of a floating iceberg, their boat gone, and both a quarter of a day's journey away from the village.

"You call that left?" She scoffed at her brother.

Frowning, Sokka made an immediate comeback as he said mockingly, "Well then, why don't you just waterbend your way back."

Finally having enough, she let loose her temper and started shouting, "YOU, ARE THE SEXIST, MOST BONEHEADED, STUPID, AHG! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M RELATED TO YOU."

Sokka had expected this from his sister. He didn't even bat an eye as the water behind her churned and started destroying a hill high ice berg with her waterbending.

"EVER SINCE MOM DIED, I'VE BEEN TAKING CARE OF YOU WHILE YOU WASTE TIME PLAYING SOLDIER. I EVEN WASH YOUR USED SOCKS FOR YOU. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW REVOLTING THAT IS? LET ME TELL YOU, NOT PRETTY!"

The hill high iceberg had enough and reduced itself into tiny parts in a huge explosion, rocking the ice berg he and his sister are standing on with the resulting waves. It took a minute before things went quiet again.

"Seriously, sis. You officially just went from weird, to freakish, Katara." He deadpanned.

Katara, who was staring at the floating pieces of the destroyed hill high ice berg with a stupefied look, couldn't help but mutter, "D-did I really do that?"

Looking at his sister's stupefied look, Sokka said, "Yup. Now, since you're finished with your slightly dangerous temper tantrum, you could finally waterbendbend us back to the village."

"Wait a minute. You mean, you weren't being sarcastic?"

"Of course I'm not. I've seen you move bigger things with water, you know. Bending the water to push this iceberg back to the village would be just like training. And we could even catch some fish on the way back."

Katara was actually mortified at her outburst. She had forgotten that it was Sokka who had been helping her develop her water bending through trial and error. She should have realized he sometimes believes in her skills more than she does herself.

Giving her brother a grateful nod, she stood up with his help to prepare herself to bend. But before she could start, a huge globe shape iceberg floated out of the water behind then. Turning, they were surprised to see a shadow inside said ice burg.

"I-Is that a person in there?" Katara asked in awe, looking at the person frozen inside the ice.

"W-what the heck?" Sokka shouted in shock. He felt a strange sense of deja vu as he stares at the sight before him. As if, something is telling him that this moment would have a sgnificant effect on his and her sister's life.

He was too busy holding his suddenly aching head that he didn't even notice her sister saying that the person in the ice is alive. He didn't object as she took one of his boomerangs before running towards the iceberg with every intention to freeing the person inside it.

Using his boomerang, Katara smacked the iceberg with all her might, until finally, the entire globe of ice cracked. Following immediately, a powerful burst of light exploded out of the ice blinding everything in sight.

For Sokka, it was too much and he fell into unconsciousness before he could get any word out.

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	2. Chapter 2

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

**CHAPTER 2**

_The Southern Wolf_

Sokka woke up with a splitting headache. Looking around, he saw himself alone inside his hut in the village. How he got there he has no idea. He was just about to get up when his sister came in with a basin of water in her hands.

"Sokka! You're finally up." She said happily as she rushed to give him a bone crushing hug.

"Yeah. Yeah. What the hell happened?" He stood up after giving his sister a brief hug in return.

"You passed out when Aang woke up."

"Aang?" For the life of him, he can't help but feel a familiarity with that name.

"Oh, it was the airbender that was trapped inside the ice. HE help me get you back to the village with the help of Appa."

"And Appa is?"

"It's the name of Aang's flying bison. It would be better if you see for yourself. So come on." She then pulled him out of the tent to be greeted by the site of a small bald boy playing with the kids. Gran Gran and the other women are watching him intently as they do their chores.

Sokka stared at th new kid and saw the arrows painted on his head, arms, and legs. When the new kid saw him, he jumped twenty feet into the air only the land in front of both siblings. He gave them a huge smile and said, "Hi there! My name's Aang. Your sister told me your name is Sokka. Nice to meet you. Hope you're all right now. I mean, she said you suddenly just fainted after I woke up."

One of Sokka's eyebrows twitched in irritation as he said, "Number one: I don't faint. It aint manly. I passed out. Number two: you are an air bender."

"Um, that's right." Aang said carefully.

"Number three: that sword of light, how big was it?"

Seeing Aang's discomfort, Katara decided to intervene and said, "Big enough to reach the sky."

Sokka nodded silently at that before turning around and walking out of the village, Aang, Katara, and everyone that saw the exchange giving him a questioning look. Once he was far enough away, heavy descriptive cursing was heard drifting into the air. The women in the village were so scandalized that they immediately run to cover their children's ears.

"Um, is he alright?" Aang asked to Katara.

"I've been asking the same question for the past two years now."

Soon enough, Sokka came back with a frown as he addresses the whole village. "Everyone, begin evacuation procedures. Pack enough food and water for three days in the glacier mountains. Prep all sleighs in case we need to move quickly."

Gran Gran, being an elder of the tribe, asked, "Sokka, what has gotten into you?" Katara and the rest of the village started asking questions as well.

"Did you all see that light all the way from here?" When he received a positive answer, he continued and said, "Then it should be safe to say that any wondering Fire Nation ship could have seen it as well. Any soldier worth their wages would at least investigate what caused it. And since we are the nearest sign of civilization in the South Pole, they would definitely come here."

"Don't be absurd, Sokka. How would you even know that any one from the Fire Nation even saw that?" Katara asked, disbelieving.

"I don't. But I would rather be prepared either way." _'And because my dreams are telling me they would definitely come.'_ He added mentally. When the rest of the tribe still seems skeptical, he added, "Look, everyone, I am not playing around. Dad and the rest of the men made me promise to look after all of you. I intend to honor that with everything that I am."

Gran Gran, who had been silently watching him, finally gave a nod in consent as she said, "Very well, young warrior. I place my life in your hands." Then she turned to the rest of the tribe and told them to prepare. Since the plea came from the elder of the tribe, they readily complied.

It was just the three of them when Katara blurted out, "Sokka! I can't believe you had Gran Gran going along with all this!"

"That's right." Aang added. "I mean, what's wrong with having the Fire Nation come here? It's not like you're at war with them or anything like that." When he saw both sibling gave him those increadolous looks, he felt uncomfortable as he ask again, "What? What did I say wrong?"

Both sibling remained uiet for a few minutes before Sokka finally asked, "Just how long have you been in that ice, airbender?"

"Sokka! That's rude. His name is Aang." Katara admonish before turning to the clueless bald boy. "Tell me, Aang, what do you know about the war with the Fire Nation?"

"There's nothing to tell. There is no war. I should know. I've just visited a friend at the Fire Nation just last month." The monk said proudly, earning him a gasp from Katara and a groan from Sokka.

The older boy put both hands on the monk's shoulder as he said, "Aang, buddy, I'll forgive your ignorance this once since there is a high probability that you've been in that ice for the last hundred years. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if the primary defenses for the village are in tact. My sister here will elaborate your situation for you, ok." Then, he left, leaving his sister to break it into the airbender the bad news.

He first went to his tent to put on his armor. He then took out a small scroll addressed to his grandmother that he had made weeks previously and placed it on top of his nap sack. After a small pre battle ritual where he painted his face, he climbs a tall glacier floating just outside the village shore. On top of it, he saw the huge wooden steak he had hammered there many months ago. Its purpose is to crack the glacier while the enemy boat is passing underneath it, thus immobilizing it in its track.

Using a telescope scavenged from the abandoned Fire Nation vessel, he started looking out for any incoming ships. He hadn't been there for half an hour when he saw Aang and his sister climbing up into the glacier.

"Hey, Sokka, I want to help." Aang said, his voice forlorn.

Not taking his eyes away from the horizon, he said, "That's good. I really need a good lookout."

"No, Sokka. Aang meant he wanted to help in the fight. He, um, he's the Avatar." Katara said, her voice full of hope.

Sokka groaned internally at that. He had been hoping his hunch had been wrong about the airbender kid but it seems his prayers have been ignored. He finally decided to turn to them. Like he thought, his sister's face has the expression of hope. Aang, on the other hand, have a look of dejection.

"Why didn't you told us that before?"

"Because I didn't want to be." The monk said, his voice full of shame.

He then glared at his sister and said, "You put him on a guilt trip, didn't you?"

"What do you take me for? Of course I didn't." Katara said defensively, glaring back.

"No, Sokka, she didn't. She wanted me to leave if the enemy does come. But I couldn't let you guys fight when it was really my fault because of that light." Aang said, his voice truthful. It was quite easy to read his dejection to violence, being a monk and all.

A few minutes of silent thinking, Sokka finally said, "Fine. I'll welcome your help. But only when I really need it. Until things go to hell, you are not to show yourself. Are we clear?"

"Sure." Aang said happily, having high hopes of not fighting.

"Sokka, don't be an idiot. Didn't you hear what I said? He Is The Avatar."

"I don't care if he's La himself. He's a child monk. A lot of them are pacifists. They detest violence. I wouldn't be surprise if he offers himself just to save the village from the Fire Nation."

Aang actually cringed at the high possibility of such a thing happening. Katara noticed as well and it was enough to placate her to silence.

Suddenly, something black started floating down around them. Sokka grabbed a handful of the stuff and smelled it. "Soot mixed with snow. It could only mean the Fire Nation is coming."

Aang and Katara stiffened at that. They didn't thought the enemy would come so soon.

Sokka suddenly turned to them, his face serious. "Katara, waterbend us a fog. Once we incapacitate the ship, I'll need the cover to get to the boat undetected. Make sure the fog is as thick as possible."

"What do you want me to do?" The monk asks.

"Fly to the village and tell my grandmother to start the evacuation. Also, tell her, if we don't come back in a week, there's a letter in my hut addressed to her. Then fly back here, probably with your bison, and make sure nothing happens to my sister and pray you wouldn't need to step in. If we fail to take out all of them now, we may have to leave the village for a while."

Aang nodded gravely before flying off. Katara, seeing the seriousness in her brother she had never seen before, could only nod as well.

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In the balcony just outside the Fire Navy ship control room:

"What do you see, nephew?" Iroh, the famous Dragon of the West, asked his nephew.

Said nephew, in full armor, and who was looking through a telescope, answered, "The villagers seem to be retreating. They seem to be smarter than we thought. Not that it would prevent us from going after them with the komodo rhinos. I think I could see the avatar flying around the village but this blasted fog is making it difficult to see."

"What makes you so sure it is actually the avatar?"

"Because, as I said, he's flying around. As much as I know, only Air Nomads could fly like that." Zuko answered before turning to the rest of his men. "Prepare for battle. And prepare the komodo rhinos as well just in case the avatar decides to retreat with the rest of those savages."

The men saluted and went to relay said orders to the rest of the crew.

Iroh had to give his nephew that. Prince Zuko wouldn't want any mistakes in capturing his prize.

They were just passing by a huge glacier when there was a sudden cracking noise. Before they know it, several tons of ice and snow suddenly dropped on top of the ship's deck, almost overturning the vessel with the sudden addition of weight.

"What the hell?" Zuko cursed. It took several minutes but they finally managed to right themselves. Too bad they can't say the same about the boat. All that added weight is tilting the entire vessel about thirty degrees to the side. "All engine stop. To all men, I want a head count and damage report! All those able fire benders are ordered to the deck to clear out all that ice."

General Iroh, who had just righted himself into standing position, his head bleeding when he hit his head on the control panel, said gravely, "I think those so-called savages are more dangerous than we anticipated."

Zuko gritted his teeth as he agreed, especially when the fog thickened so much that visibility has become a problem. It was too coincidental to be anything naturally made. He could barely make out his men, at least a dozen of them, swarming the deck using their firebending to melt the ice and snow.

Suddenly, a shout came out of the fog and one of the firebenders disappeared from sight. Another shout was heard and another of his men disappeared from site.

Zuko immediately shouted, "Enemy on deck. All men form a circle, back to back!"

The men, only ten of them left, using their flames to tell where the others are, moved into a tight circle until all of them are back to back, facing the fog, ready for any attack. Seeing that his men are ready for a moment, Zuko ran down from the bridge towards the deck.

Suddenly, twirling sounds was heard all around them. Seconds later, six clangs and six shouts were heard before six of the soldiers fell down on deck, unconscious, the backs of their helmets inverted inward.

Zuko, arriving just in time to see his men fall, shouted, "Get those men below deck, now! And watch the entrance in case the enemy tries to follow you!"

The four remaining men did exactly what was ordered and grabbed their unconscious comrades into the bowel of the ship.

Zuko heightened all his senses, trying to get a glimpse of the unknown enemy within the fog.

Hearing the slash before it came, he quickly crossed his arms above his head, managing to deflect the slash with his metal armband. Pushing the blade away, he countered with a flaming kick that the enemy managed to avoid to retreat back into the fog. Whoever he is, Zuko thought, he's an expert in hit and run tactics.

The unseen enemy made several attempts but Zuko managed to deflect all of them. Both he and enemy seem to be in a stalemate. He had recieve a few slashes when the enemy's knives came a bit close. He was also able to inflict a few burns on said enemy. But neither combatants have managed to score a critical blow on each other.

Then, he heard the tail tale sound of several swirling objects all around him. He readied himself for the coming attack but it seems his Uncle Iroh have other plans.

"Get down, Zuko!" Came Iroh's urgent voice somewhere on deck.

Heeding his uncle's word for once, Zuko drop flat into the floor of the deck just in time to dodge a huge blast of fire that came out of nowhere. The heat generated was so hot that it instantly blew away the fog, as well as the six boomerangs that would have made real damage on him if they had connected.

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Sokka had victory on his sight. Thanks to the Fire Nation's red uniform, he was able to make out the position of his lone enemy in the fog. Deciding to finish off the fight, he let loose all his boomerangs in a wide arc towards the single enemy. They would have hit him too if that sudden blast of fire came out of nowhere and blasted his weapons back to him.

He managed to catch all of his boomerang on his hands just in time to use them as an improvised shield against the sudden blast of fire.

Crossing his boomerangs in front of him, he managed to deflect the worst f the attack but the force of it still managed to do some damaged, almost throwing him overboard. Checking himself, he found his right leg and left arm had been burned.

Sheathing all but one boomerang, he look up to see his cover blown away. He cursed himself upon seeing the familiarity in the face of the old man and the soldier with the burn mark on his face looking at him in surprise.

He knows he had seen those two faces before but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where or when.

Pushing aside such thoughts for the moment, he raised his single boomerang in front of him, readying himself for the coming attacks, particularly from the hot headed vanished prince.

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"A child?" Iroh asked in awe at seeing the enemy for the first time. The boy seems to be fourteen to sixteen years of age but his gray armor and gray and black face paint makes him look much older and menacing. It also makes him look like a gray wolf from afar. He could see his last attack had made significant damage on the kid since he could see blood dripping from his arm and leg, as well as the way he's shaking while trying to maintain standing up.

But the most significant thing about this young warrior is the aura surrounding him. Looking more closely, the old man could just make out the silhouette of a wolf blanketing him. This boy, he had been touched by the spirits.

Zuko, seeing an opportunity for some payback, took a menacing step forward, preparing himself to unleash hell. "So, you are the savage that had the gull to attack me and my men? I will show you no mercy, fool. Give me the Avatar and maybe I'll make your death painless."

"Say's the guy who was about to attack a village of defenseless women and children. And you got a few screw loose if you think I'll hand over anything to you. I am Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. I will never yield to you honor less bastards!" Sokka shot back with equal venom.

"Then you just earn yourself a one way ticket to the Spirit World!" Zuko shot back just before shooting a blast of flame at the injured boy.

Sokka knew he wouldn't have enough time to dodge so he prepared himself to minimize the attack, not that he needed to since a blast of compressed air blasted the fire attack before reaching him.

Both firebenders was in shock when a bald monk came out of nowhere and placed himself between them and the injured Water Tribe warrior.

"An airbender? You're the Avatar?" Zuko asked in shock.

Instead of answering, Aang used his staff to throw several air blasts at both Iroh and Zuko, keeping them back as Katara swoop down on Appa to get her injured brother.

"You sure took your sweet time." Sokka complained at his sister but his eyes tell how glad it is to see her.

"Come on, Sokka, while Aang distracts them." Katara said urgently as she help her brother into the bison.

They were already airborne when Katara called out, "Aang, let's go! I got Sokka!"

"Coming, Katara!" The monk answered, preparing to make a jump.

"Oh no you don't! You're mine, Avatar." Zuko redoubled his efforts and shot baast after blast of flames at the very agile monk.

One lucky fire blast managed to push the Avatar overboard, his staff flying out of his hands towards the deck.

"Aang!" Katara and Sokka shouted in concern as their friend fell into the icy waters. But they didn't have worry themselves since a few seconds later, Aang resurfaced, his eyes and arrow tattoos shining brightly, a huge column of water trailing him like a body of a giant snake.

"Man, he looks pissed. Now that is what I call waterbending." Sokka can't help but say.

Aang landed back on the deck of the ship, the water forming a huge ring around him. Zuko and Iroh tried blasting flames at him but the water protected him from the blasts. Then, with an angry gesture, Aang blasted them with the water, pushing them hard against the railing of the ship, stunning them for the moment.

As Katara landed Appa into the deck, Aang started swinging on his feet, the glow on his eyes and tattoo disappearing. Luckily for him, Katara managed to catch him before he fell unconscious into the floor. She pulled him on top of Appa as Sokka pick up his discarded staff. Appa flew as soon as all of them had gotten on him.

"Darn it!" Zuko shouted in anger as he saw them escaping. He gave a look at his uncle who nodded back at him. Together, they shot a huge blast of fire at the retreating kids and their bison.

Fortunately for the kids, Aang managed to wake up just in time to counter the fire blast with a blast of compressed air, diverting the fire to the side, hitting the glacier and thus dropping another few tons of ice and snow on top of the fire nation ship.

The sudden shift of balance had thrown Zuko overboard.

"Prince Zuko!" Iroh shouted in concern as he ran to the railings.

Hearing the shout, Aang and the others turned to look and grimaced at the falling firebender.

Sokka, feeling a sudden panic that came out of nowhere, took out one of his boomerangs and let it fly.

Zuko would have fallen into the icy waters and probably die if that boomerang didn't appear out of nowhere and buried itself on the side of the ship where he is to pass, thus providing him with an object to hold on to save himself from the fall.

"Darn it!" Zuko couldn't help but grit his teeth in anger. Not only did he fail to capture the Avatar, his dignity was tarnished by being saved by the enemy. He glared at the flying bison disappearing into the horizon. He would need to be fast to catch up with them.

He could already hear his uncle barking orders to the men.

It took several moments before Zuko is safely back into the bridge of the ship, his uncle beside him while the rest of the men are fixing up the ship to go after the Avatar. In his hand is the boomerang that had saved his life. He's been examining it since he was brought back onto the ship.

"You know, my nephew, considering everything that happened today, we should be grateful for all the good news." Iroh said sagely.

"Good news? What good news?" Zuko snarled. "Not only did we failed from capturing the Avatar, half of my men had been incapacitated by a kid younger than me. Two of five of our komodo rhinos are injured, it would take half a day just to clear the deck of all that ice, and the ship would require some serious repair before we could go after our prey."

"You are right. But you neglect to realize that after years of fruitless search, we had finally found the Avatar. The greatest threat to the Fire Lord, is but a child. Furthermore no one was seriously injured. That boy, Sokka I believe, was not aiming to kill. If he did, then eight of our soldiers would be dead. I have no doubt the entire crew is already talking about his skills. They even started calling him the Southern Wolf."

"The Southern Wolf, huh?" Zuko wanted to deny such claims but he knew for a fact that the Water Tribe boy is very skilled for someone so young. And the boy, Sokka, does resemble a wolf in battle, in both appearances, as well as in the danger he represents. He examined the boomerang in his hand, the same weapon that almost defeated him as well as saved his life. Finally, he said, "Fitting."

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"Why the heck did I do that? What in La's name did I do something as stupid as that?" Sokka kept asking himself for a while now as he, his sister, and Aang fly off into the sky on the bison Appa.

"I think you did the right thing." Aang said, consoling him as he steers Appa away from the enemy ship.

"Aang's right, Sokka. You save a man's life. I'm very proud of you." His sister added with pride on her voice as she dresses his wounds.

"I'm not talking about that!" Sokka suddenly blurted, earning him a questioning look from his sister and his new airbending buddy. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to make my boomerang? Why the heck did I purposely leave it behind like that?"

Aang gave him a confuse look while Katara groaned knowing better than to think about knowing her brother's priorities. But still, both felt very proud at what he did. They were at awe at how he almost single-handedly fought off an entire ship of Fire Nation soldiers and then saving an enemy at the end.

"Anyway, what are we going to do now? I mean, we can't risk going back now unless we want to risk those Fire Nation soldiers following us home." Katara asks suddenly.

"I'm sorry for everything." Aang said, regret in his voice. "It's my fault those soldiers went after you guys."

Sokka, being the understanding young man he is, gave the dejected boy a slap on the back of the head as he said, "Regret doesn't suit you, Aang. Those guys would go after us sooner or later. At least for now we represent a better target than a village of defenseless women and children. As long as we stay away they'll leave the village alone. The question now is where should we go?"

Properly chastised now, Aang said excitedly, "How about we go to my place? The Southern Air Temple is just a few days travel from here."

"I think that's a great idea. What do you think, Sokka?"

"Well, it's a destination at least. Okay, Aang. Let's head over there. We'll think about where to go next later."

"Great! Hear that, Appa? We're going home. Yip yip!"

Their destination set, the three friends and their bison companion flew into the beginning of their great adventure.

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	3. Chapter 3

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

**CHAPTER 3**

_The Southern Air Temple_

_---Uhg! Sleep now. Air Temple later.---_

_---AHHHHH! Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!---_

_---Hey! Who took my blubbered tiger-seal jerkey?---_

_---Darn! No wonder the campire smelled so tasty last night.---_

Sokka awoke at the sound of Aang's and Katara's voice. He have a habit of mentally waking up early while the rest of his body remains asleep, thus allowing him to be aware of his surroundings without anyone else knowing. It's a handy skill that allows him to eavesdrop on people's conversation nearby without getting noticed.

"I'm sure you'll like the Southern Air Temple, Katara. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world." Aang's excited voice said nearby.

"Aang, you shouldn't be too excited about it. I mean, it's been a hundred years." Katara's voice said hesitantly, which was appropriate considering what the Fire Nation did to the Air Nomads a hundred years ago.

"That's why I'm so excited. I mean, wow! I haven't seen my room in one hundred years."

Sokka then heard someone approaching him, probably Aang going to wake him up since he could barely hear the person's footstep on the ground. Besides, Katara have big feet.

He heard Aang picking something up, probably a small branch he could use to poke him. "Sokka, wake up! There's a rattle snake crawling on you."

Instead of panicking, Sokka's hand lashed out and grabbed the before his oher hand, which had been holding a single boomerang during his sleep, lashed out and slashed the wooden branch in two. "Huh? Where's my snake barbecue?" His mouth said out loud before his mind could stop it.

"O-kay. . . no more waking Sokka up with practical jokes." Aang said nervously, very glad that he used a brach instead of his hands.

Katara, meanwhile, was giggling very hard in the background. "Sorry, Aang. I should have told you Sokka have a bad habit of being armed even when sleeping."

"Um, I'll try to remember that." The young monk said promising himself to never ever wake the young Water Tribe boy like that ever again unless he wants a part of his body cut off.

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Zuko scowled as his battered ship was anchored onto the dock beside the much larger and much newer Fire Nation Navy ships. Walking down into the harbor with his uncle beside him, he said, "I want the ship repaired and fully restocked as soon as possible. We need to get back on their trail or else we might lose track of them."

Looking back at the battered ship, Iroh said, "Restocking will take half a day. May be a few hours at most. But the repairs might take a while. The Southern Wolf and the Avat . . ."

"Don't mention that out loud, uncle!" Zuko hissed angrily. "If anyone else knew we found the Avatar they would start hunting him down. It would just mean more competition for me. You must never mention . . ."

"Mention what, Prince Zuko?" Came the very familiar, and very unwanted voice nearby.

Turning, both uncle and nephew saw a unoformed soldier walking towards them. He was a huge man, in his late thirties, strong build.

"Captain Zhao." Zuko greeted out of formality's sake, almost making it sound like a curse. Internally, that was his intention. He really hates this man.

"It's Commander Zhao now, my prince." Zhao, the bastard, said smugly before turning to greet the lder man. "And General Iroh. It's good to see one of the Fire Nation's war heroes. What brings you to my harbor?"

"Hello, Commander. And that's retired general." The old man greeted pleasantly.

Zhao gave a nod and took a good look at the prince's old and battered ship and said, "It seems you're ship went through a tough battle."

Both uncle and nephew look at each other, trying to silently tell each other to make up an excuse to get out of Zhao's interogating voice.

Finally, Zuko turned to the commander and said, "Of course. It was a very hard battle. And, um, my uncle here would be very glad to tell you how it went."

"Me? Ehem! I mean, yes. ME. All I could tell you is that it was a feirce battle. Our enemies ambushed us and took out half the crew in minutes." It wasn't a total lie. The crash that resulted from the falling ice glacier had injured some of the crew the first time and the young Water Tribe boy incapacitated eight soldiers right after. Being a small ship, Zuko only has a total of twenty seven men.

"I see." Zhao said smoothly, too smoothly for Iroh's taste. The old war hero also noticed Zhao's eyes taking a small glimpse at the boomerang sheated on the prince's belt. "Very well. Your men are welcome to my dock's supply warehouse for resupplies and repairs. While we wait, would you two care to join me for a spot of tea?"

Frowning at the idea of spending more time with the hated comander, Zuko immediately declined and said, "Sorry. But we are in a hurry and would need to sail out as soon as possible."

"Now, now, Prince Zuko. Please remember your manners." Iroh lectured at his nephew before turning good naturedly at the commander and saying, "We would be delighted to join you, Commander Zhao. Tell me, do you, perhaps, have jasmine tea. It's my favorite."

Seeing his uncle walk off with the commander, Zuko can't help but grit his teeth and follow.

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"HEy! Who took my blabbered tiger seal jerkey?" Sokka whinned as he overturn the sack of said jerkey only to come up empty.

"That was food? Sorry. I used it to light the camp fire last night." Aang said apologetically while steering Appa through the mountain skies.

Sokka groaned at that. "No wonder the camp fire smelled tasty last night!"

Katara, sitting beside Aang, would have laugh at the funny sight if her mind wasn't thinking of something else, something that Aang would find terrible.

"I'm hungry." Sokka complained once more, his stomach grumbling loud enough to be heard.

"Don't worry, Sokka. The Southern Air Temple have a huge fruits garden that blossoms all year round. There's sure to be lots of food there." The monk said enthusiastically. He then started describing everything he could remember about his home, he people that had lived there, his friends, the animals living around the temple, even some of the festivals that occurs yearly.

"Um, Aang, there's something I have to tell you first before we get to the temple." Katara begun softly, cutting off his happy tirade.

"Like what? I mean, sure I've been gone for the last hundred years but I'm sure not everything had changed."

Katara groaned internally at the monk's innocent expression. She really hated being the bearer of bad news. "Aang, the Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads at the start of the war. As far as we know, he left no survivors."

"W-what?" Aang asked in shock just as Appa passed over the last mountain range.

The site that greeted them wasn't pretty. The Southern Air Temple, a huge monastey situated on top of a very high and vertically steep mountain accessible only by air, used to be a place teeming with life. Air bisons and lemur could be seen flying everywhere and the monks fly nesides these magestic animals with their gliders.

But now, the temple lay in ruins. No animals could be seen anywhere. Tens of scrapped Fire Nation battle tanks are scattered all around the temple. A hundred and more skeletal bodies in Fire Nation armor and Air Nomad tunics littered all over the place.

Katara gasped at the sight while Sokka grimanced just thinking of what Aang must be feeling ight now.

Aang himself was shocked. He blinked several times hoping all of this was just a dream but the site remained as it is. His home, the very place where he was born and grew up, had been desecrated.

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"Ah. That hit the spot. The tea was excellent, Commander Zhao." Iroh said pleasantly.

"Thank you, General Iroh. I do enjoy a good cup of ginseng tea." The commander said diplomatically, making Zuko, who's been sitting quietly by the side, almost gag in disgust.

"I'm quite partial to jasmine tea myself. It is my favorite blend." The retired general added.

Zhao gave the older man an oily smile. Then he turned to the pouting prince and said, "So, anyway, how has your quest coming along?"

"I don't think it's any of your business, Zhao." The prince said hotly.

Zhao gave a nasty smirk in return. "I beg to differ, my prince. The resappearance of the Avatar is a concern of all Fire Nation soldiers. Your men were quite helpful during their interrogation. Not to worry. None of your men were harmed, merely asked some questions. They were also quite vocal about a certain savage from the Southern Water Tribe that single handedly incapacitated half of your crew."

"Bastard!" Zuko raged, his uncle holding him back from attacking the commander.

"Commander Zhao, you would do well than to under estimate the Avatar's power. And if that's not enough, he is under the protection of the Southern Wolf, a most formidable enemy despite his young age." Iroh said gravely.

Zhao smirk. He had a comeback for that as well. "On the contrary, General Iroh, I feel you are merely over estimating that savage's skills. He is but a nobody from a tribe our nation had reduced to almost nothing. And according to your men, the Avatar is but a child and had clearly haven't learned to weild the rest of the elements. Capturing them as they are should have been child's play. Clearly, it shows these two years of exile had made you lose your fighting spirit."

Zuko gritted his teeth. "Don't give out insults if you're not prepared to face the consequences, Zhao. I'm the one who's going to capture the Avatar and destroy Sokka the Southern Wolf. No one else is going to stop me from gaining back my honour!"

"Is that a challenge in Agni Kai, Prince Zuko?" Zhao was smirking now. It had been so easy to bait the htheaded exiled prince.

Iroh, seeing through Zhao's plan, tried to intervene. "Of course it's not, Commander Zhao. The prince is merely stating his plans for his quest. No need to loose your heads over such significant thing."

But Iroh's pleas was ignored as Zuko declared, "You and me, in Agni Kai. Pier. One hour!"

And with the challenge set, Zuko stormed out of the room to prepare himself, leaving the groaning Iroh and the smug looking Zhao.

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The pier was filled with expectators. No one wanted to miss the duel between Commander Zhao and the exiled Prince of the Fire Nation.

The duel is to take place on a raised platform used by the soldiers for just that purpose.

As stated in the rules of Agni Kai, both men are now taking off their upper clothes and would do battle using firebending and hand to hand to settle their disputes.

"Remember, nephew, Zhao's greatest flaw is his arrogance. If you stick to the basics, you may just win this one." Iroh said, giving Zuko some last minutes coaching.

"Don't worry, Uncle. I know I can win this." Zuko said as he gave his clothes and weapon t his uncle, the boomerang laying on tp of his cothes.

Iroh had to give his nephew points for confidence. But still, Zhao has been in twenty duels in Agni Kai and he had won all but three, one of which Iroh himself had been his opponent. Zhao is very good at firebending, almost too good. He really needs to investigate Zhao's past duels to make sure there was no foul play involve.

As soon as Iroh left the dueling platform, both Zuko and Zhao faced each other in the standard firebending stances.

"Are you ready to lose the last shred of your honor, Zuko?" The commander taunted smugly.

"That's still Prince Zuko to you, Zhao. We'll see which one of us would lose his honor today." Zuko shot back with equal venom.

Serving as the judge, Iroh shouted, "BEGIN!"

Being the more impatient of the two, Zuko attacked first, leaping towards the older man with several blasts of fire from his arms and legs.

Confident in his ability, Zhao stayed in place either blocking or redirecting the fire attacks successfully. As soon as he saw the younger man falter, he leapt into attack.

Zuko was barely able to dodge his opponent's attacks. Zhao was more powerful and has experience on his side. The prince's tenacity and greater speed barely managed to equalize the missmatch. It seems for every two dodge, the younger man was grazed by Zhao's flames.

The roar of the crowd was deftening but Zuko would only see his opponent and no one else.

For the next several minutes, Zuko did his best to dodge every attack Zhao threw at him. It was clear that the commander had been playing with the young prince the entire time and only dragging the fight longer than necessary to humiliate the younger man.

Zuko tried a burning sweep kick but Zhao managed to jump over it and make the first critical strike in the match, a flaming punch in the chest.

Zuko summersaulted away to lessen the blow but it had blew the air out of him, stunning him for a moment.

Zhao, now feeling certain of his victory, decided to taunt the young prince for a moment with a 'come hee' gesture. When Zuko refused to take the bait, Zhao leapt at him once more, thinking of finally ending the match.

Suddenly hearing his uncle's voice within the crowd, he took a split second to think of the best strategy to at least prevent himself from getting killed. Finally deciding tio heed his uncle's advice, he went back to the basics and took a very deep breath before releasing it in a huge breath of fireless heat as soon as Zhao was near enough.

Surprised by the unorthodox move, Zhao was stunned by the sudden blast of heat. It was just enough time for Zuko to gather all of his power for his next attack, hoping not to miss or else he would definitely loose. Fortunately for him, the flaming double palm attack hit the stunned commander in the middle of his chest, blasting him off of the platform into the crowd.

He had won. Zuko had beaten Zhao in Agni Kai. It took a few seconds to regain enough of his strength to stand tall and raise his fist to the cheeing crowd. It felt good to be appreciated.

"That was a good match, Prince Zuko." Iroh congratulated proudly as he walk towards his nephew, bringing his clothes and weapon back to him.

It was rare times like this that Zuko actually produce one of his genuine smiles. "Thank You, Uncle Iroh."

Suddenly, the whoe crowd tensed as an enraged Zhao suddenly jumped back into the platform and shot a huge fire ball at Zuko's back.

Acting on instincts, Zuko grabbed the boomerang from his uncle and threw it at the approaching fire ball. The spinning boomerang slashed through the ball, splitting it in two that blew the edge of the platform on each side of him. The weapon continued to fly and had grazed Zhao on the raised right hand, only to fly on a return arc and stuck Zhao on the left shoulder, elliciting a cry of pain from the older man.

Adrenaline finally receeding, Zuko started feeling the commulative pain he had gotten during the duel. All he wanted was to pass out right there and then but through force of will, he took several steady steps towrds the down man.

"By Law of the Agni Kai, I have every right to take your life with out reprecussions for attacking me after my victory. But I won't." Zuko said emotionlessly at the seething Zhao, who knew better than to think he would get away from attacking the prince after his victory a second time.

The commander grit his teeth in pain as Zuko pulled out the boomerang so suddenly. "I and I alone will be the one to capture the Avatar and destroy Sokka the Southern Wolf, probably by driving this thing through his heart. You will provide me with everything me and my men will need to make that happen and neither you or anyone under you will question my authority ever again. Are we clear, Zhao?"

Zhao knew he either agree or die right there and then. Choosing to ive to fight another day, Zhao said, "Very well, You Highness."

"Good." Zuko smirked as he stood up, holding the bloody boomerang in front of the downed man. "This single blade managed to cut you in seconds. Imagine six of this blades in a hand of a master inside a thick fog, each blade flying all around you. Then, imagine the power of the four elements backing down the master of these blades. These are the people me and my men are going after. I will need all the help I can get. And you, Zhao, will provide me with that help."

"Yes, my prince."

There were whispers and murmering among the crowds. By the sound of things, the prince is going to a suicide mission going againts not only the Avatar, but also againts the new warrior, Sokka the Southern Wolf, who seems to have gained another title, Sokka of the Six Blades thanks to the prince's description.

"IS the prince really going after those monsters? He'll die!" one soldier said.

"He could but I don't think it would stop him."

"He's desperate. The Fire Lord wouldn't reinstate him as heir to the throne unless he brings the Avatar to the Fire Nation."

"I still think it's unfair. We finally have a decent Fire Lord-to-be and he got stuck with an impossible task."

"If anyone could do it, it would be Prince Zuko."

"But the Avatar have the Southern Wolf guarding him."

"According to the prince's men, he's just a young savage from the Southern Water Tribe. He doesn't sound like too much of a problem."

"Don't be so sure. Reports from the Eastern Seas confirms we have lost a dozen navy ships againts wooden ships flying the Southern Water Tribe flags. We must not underestimate them."

"That's one way to put it. I saw the damage done on Prince Zuko's ship. According to the prince's men, that Water Tribe boy had done it without the help of the Avatar."

"I still say Sokka of the Six Blades is a better title, if what the prince say about the weapons he use is true."

"Yeah. Could you imagine fighting someone who weilds six of those things like a master?"

"LEt's hope the prince succeeds. I like the idea of serving under a man with such determination."

"I agree. We'll help as much as we can."

Iroh, hearing the conversation all around him, couldn't help but smile proudly at his nephew. The young prince had not only won Zhao's unwilling support, but the men's loyalty as well.

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Aang stood erect at the ruins of the temple's courtyard looking at the sky. He could almost feel the souls lingering around the entire place. He could just imagine their voices shouting for justice and revenge for their gruesome death in battle.

He, Katara, and Sokka had explored the entire place and found nothing but skeletal remains and the lingering scent of battle.

"It's terrible." Came Katara's sad voice as she walk into the courtyard, a slemn Sokka by her side.

Sokka nodded grimly. "What I don't understand is why the vegetation and wild life haven't returned to this place? I mean, it's almost been a hundred years already."

Speaking for the first time, Aang said gravely, "The spirits are restless. The earth has been stained. As long as death lingers here, no life could ever grow from this place."

There was silence for the moment, each one trying to shake off the lingering cold in the air. None of them could see spirits for the moment but all of them could feel the dead's syffering in the air.

Aang felt ashamed. As the Avatar, it's his duty to prevent things like this happening. Due to his selfishness, he had runaway, and thus got trapped in ice for a hundred years. He couldn't imagine how many more deaths he had caused because he wasn't there to prevent it?

Sokka saw guilt eating at his new friend. Somehow, he knew exactly how he felt. Feeling responsible for so many deaths is a burden that should not be shouldered by someone so young, so innocent. Just looking at him brought out several past dreams that he had the last two years, all showing deaths of people he never had met before. Each time he felt the guilt and the hopelessness of preventing said deaths, despite the fact that all of it have been just a dream.

He could see the same guilt in Aang's eyes and he decided then and there that he would not allow his new friend to shoulder all the burden alone. He took several deteermined steps towards the monk and put both hands on Aang's shoulder. "Let's go, Avatar. It's time you get back to work."

The airbender was surprised at his friend's sudden changed of mood. He could see the decisiveness in his blue eyes. Also, it was the very first time Sokka had called him by his title when for the past few days he calls him either 'buddy', 'dude', 'airbender', or his given name. Sokka must be serious to finally call him Avatar so Aang asked, "What do you mean, Sokka?"

Sokka took a deep breathe before staring straight at the Avatar's eyes. "You are the Avatar, the bridge between the mortal and spirit world. You are the master of the elements, deliverer of justice, worldwide peacekeeper, and overall conflict solver. What's more conflicting than all these restless souls lingering about?"

"B-but what should I do? I may be the Avatar but I'm still just a kid. I haven't even fully mastered my airbending yet. I don't know how to bend the rest of the elements. I don't even know where to begin looking for a teacher. Also, I never wanted to be the Avatar in the first place! All I ever wanted was to be just a normal kid and trave the world! Thanks to my selfishness, I ran away from home, got trapped in the ice fo a hundred yeras, and cause the deaths of thousands because of my absense! How could I be worthy of being Avatar? How? How!? HOW!? TELL ME HOW!!!"

_**SLAP!!!**_

Aang's incoherent babbling stopped dead on its track by the sudden pain on his left cheek and the set of warm arms that wrapped around him from the side a second later. He started crying in the middle of his rant and the slap from Katara had stopped that too.

Sokka, who was blinking at what his sister did, smiled proudly and said, "Good job, Katara. I would have punched him and he would have likely loose a tooth."

"I did what I had to, Sokka. And Aang, my brother's right, for once. You are the Avatar. You'll find a way. And we'll be there to help you." She buried her head in the monk's left side, showing support as best she can.

Sokka studied Aang's face intently, seeing it shift from guilt for his selfishness, to sorrow for the loss of lives, to acceptance of his fate, to happiness for his companions, and then, finally, to determination to make everything right again.

The older teen then gave the Avatar a smile as he said, "Tell us, Avatar, what must we do?"

Aang contemplated for a few minutes before finally answering in a voice that's deserving of his title. "We are going to give them a proper burial. All of them. And then, I'll see to guiding all these souls into the Spirit World."

Both Sokka and Katara disengage themselves from Aang so that they could stand in front of him. Then, both siblings gave the monk a respectful bow and said in unison, "As you command, Avatar Aang."

And with that proclamation, the spirits of all past Avatars rejoiced. A new Avatar had accepted his duty and joined their ranks as guardian of the world.

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Avatar temples all throughout the world reacted at the same time, signaling the return of the Avatar.

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"Bring news to the Fire Lord. The Avatar has returned." The chief Fire Sage ordered to one of the other priests as he watch the glowing eyes of the statue of Avatar Roku in the Avatar Temle in Cresent Island.

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"Father!" Shouted a white haired princess as she stepped out of the entrance of the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole.

"What is it, daughter?"

"Tui and La had showed me Avatar has awakened."

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"Spread the good news. The Avatar is alive." The Earth priest shouted in glee at Kyoshi's Temple as Kyoshi's ceremonial battle fans illuminate the entire chamber.

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	4. Chapter 4

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

**CHAPTER 4**

_Of Lemur and Kyoshi Wariors_

It took the three of them four days. It would have taken them longer if it wasn't for Katara's waterbending sipping water into the ground, making it soft and loose enough for Aang to use his airbending to blow the dirt away, thus digging an average size grave in a matter of minutes. Four days of providing each of the one hundred and seventy two people that died in and around the Southern Air Temple with a proper grave.

And now, here we found Aang, kneeling in the temple's main courtyard, where they had decided to place the grave marker for the dead, Sokka and Katara kneeling behind him, showing their support as the Avatar offer a prayer for the spirits. It was just a collection of smooth stones arranged in a way forming a short pyramid. According to Aang, as soon as the burial ritual prayer is finished, this altar will serve as a gateway for the dead towards the spirit world.

"It is done." Aang's voice said, jerking both siblings from their deep thoughts.

"That's good." Sokka said before yawning. He hadn't had a descent night's sleep ever since arriving in this lace thanks to the lingering presence of death in the air. It would be nice to get away from here soon.

"At least now the dead would get the chance to cross over to the spirit world." Katara added. "Aang, how long do you think it would take before things start growing in this place again?"

"I don't know, Katara. A few years at least, but things will definitely grow here again."

"That's good news. What's our plan now?" she asked.

Aang thought for a moment but couldn't think of anything. "I don't know yet, Katara. What do you think, Sokka?"

Sokka contemplated for a moment, bringing out some of the many dream memories he had. Then, he found the answer and said, "The North Pole."

"What do you mean, Sokka?" Aang and Katara asked in unison.

"The Northern Water Tribe. Aang, you'll need to master the rest of the elements starting with water, right?" At Aang's nod, Sokka continued. "So, the best place to find a waterbending master would be in the South Pole."

Katara, seeing the rest of her brother's plan agreed immediately and added, "Our sister tribe have the world's largest number of waterbenders to date. It would be so easy for you, and me as well, to find a waterbending master. Excellent idea, Sokka."

"I agree. Great idea, Sokka."

"Good. Since everyone agrees, we'll start heading North right away. Katara could even teach you some of the stuff she knows while we travel. I suggest we eat plenty today before leaving. I've already picked out a few wild berries with Appa this morning." He said, walking out of the main gate of the temple where Appa was resting with the rest of their gears, particularly the food sack, Aang and Katara walking beside him.

All three pre teens stop in their tracks upon arriving at the scene ofa bouncing food sack on to of a sleeping bison. They could see a long black tail with two white strifes near the tip of said tail swinging out of the sack. Seconds later, a white furred, black faced, green eyed head with very large ears sprout out of the sack.

"A lemur?" Aang asked excitedly upon seeing the familiar species of the animal.

"Awe. It looks so cute." Katara gushed.

Sokka, on the other hand, have something else in mind. "HEY, YOU THIEF! THAT'S OUR FOOD!"

Startled, the lemur ran bringing the food sack with it.

Aang and Sokka immediately went in pursuit, both of them with varying degree of intention.

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"OUCH! Not so hard, Katara! That stuff stings."

"It's anticeptic, Sokka. I's supposed to sting. Besides, it's your own fault fo trying to hurt Momo." Katara said rolling her eyes as she applied the medicine on one of the many scratches her brother gained when he followed the lemur into a thorny bush.

Said lemur, now named Momo, is currently sitting on Aang's shoulder as the monk steers Appa towards the North. They decided to tavel by sea and there's not a piece of land on sight. They've been flying for half a day now. By his estimation, it must be four in the afternoon. "At least Momo here helped you to catch those squirell rabbits you had for lunch. lus, he led us to that hidden apple tree on the ledge of the cliff."

"Aang, he was using those squirell rabbits as sheilds againts my boomerangs. And the reason we found that tree is because that lemur tripped me over the ledge. I just happen to see that tree as I hang for dear life." Sokka deadpanned, glaring at the lemur who merely stared back at him with its green doe eyes.

Aang beamed and said, "There, you see. Momo was verey helpful. Besides, since he decided to come along, he's part of the group now. He must have so lonely living alone up there temple." The hapy monk then turned to the lemur and said to him, "Now then, Momo, why don't you give Sokka a hug so he can finally make up to him."

Like his domesticated ancestors, Momo was able to understand some human language. He managed to process what the monk human child had said and responded appropriately. He gave the monk child the 'Are you out of your freaking mind?' look.

"Now, now, Momo. Don't be like that. Sokka did worked hard for getting those berries that you ate." Aang admonish.

Relenting, the lemur jump in front of the angry boy and gave him 'the look'.

Sokka saw 'the look' and promised himself he would not succumb to it. Katara had used 'the look' on hims so many times during their childhood years and he believes he had managed to gain immunity to it. He didn't want to take any chances so he turned away and refuse to look at the animal's green dopey eyes.

"Awe! That's so cute." Katara gushed.

His sister's voice made him look and he was a goner. He cursed inwardly. He had always thought he would be immune to such attacks, but Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe was proven no match for the Puppy-Dog-Pout.

Sighing in defeat, he finally said, "Fine, you win. I forgive you. But no more stealing my food, got it!"

The lemur's answer is for him to jump on the angry one's shoulder and purr, making the now dejected one involuntarily start scratching him behind the ear, something Momo had found that Sokka was actually good at.

Seeing everything is fine, Aang smiled and said, "Well then, now that's everyone is fine again, what's the plan? Do we proceed North?"

"No. We need to restock first. Our food supply won't last until tomorrow." Sokka decided.

"Well, we could land on the island down there." Katara pointed at the speck of land on the horizon.

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"Finally." Zuko said as his ship left the the harbor of Zhao's naval base. He turned to the helmsman and ordered, "Head towards to the Southern Ocean. We will resume our search there."

"What are your plans, my prince?" Iroh asked, standing beside him.

"It's been a week since we lost sight of the Avatar. He couldn't have gotten far. He would have gone for supplies so we'll go through each harbor starting from the South and work our way North. Someone is bound to have seen him or at least the flying bison he's been riding on."

"Good plan, Prince Zuko. I will have the navigators set out a course for the fastest route we can manage."

"Thank you, uncle. I'll be in the deck later for practice."

"With the boomerang again, I suppose?" He asked, taking a few glimpse at the rince's bandaged hands.

"Yes. If I am to defeat that Water Tribe savage, then I would need to learn his fighting style."

"Very wise of you, nephew. I will have some men help you on your training later." The old man said proudly.

"Thank you, uncle. I'll be on my quarters if you need me." Zuko nodded gratefully at his uncle before leaving the helms.

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"Wow. This coconut stuff is tasty." Sokka said munching on his sixth coconut meat of the day.

As soon as they landed on the uninhabited beach, Aang saw the coconut trees and plucked out a dozen of them. Aang showed them how to open one without spilling the juice inside. After drinking the juice, he then used a blast of air to slice the thing open, giving access to the white meat inside.

Being from the Poles, it was the first time for either Katara and Sokka to eat the tropical fruit. And they liked it. Even Momo seems to enjoy it, considering his undignified burp after consuming his fourth one. Appa, on the other hand, was happily chewing on a nearby field of grass.

"I specially like the juice. "Katara gushed, sipping at her coconut.

"See, I told you guys you'll like it." Aang said proudly.

"We would definitely have to bring a dozen of these on our trip. It's so efficient. It's a meal and a drink in one go." Sokka was already calculating how many of the things Appa could carry. He smiled when he realized they would be able to bring at least two dozen of them if he pack them carefully.

All three suddenly saw something move in the water.

"Is that . . ." Katara begun.

"Elephant koi!" Aang ended gleefully, rushing towards the water while taking off his robes at the same time. "I hadn't riden one of them in a while!"

"Aang, don't! It might be dangerous!" Katara tried to stop him but the young monk either didn't heard her or was too excited to care.

"Oh let him have some fun, Katara. He's still a kid. Plus, he's the Avatar. He'll be fine." Sokka said while making himself comfortable on the shade of a nearby tree using his rolled up sleeping bag as a pillow.

Seeing Aang riding the elephant koi gleefully and her brother relaxing, Katara hung her head in defeat and said, "Fine. I give up."

She was about to mimic Sokka and find herself her own spot for a nap when she saw a huge shadow in the water following Aang and the huge elephant fish he's riding on. "Aang, watch out!"

But her warning came too late. The huge shadow grabbed onto the elephant koi's tail, stopping in its track. The sudden stop threw Aang forward, skipping on the surface of the water a couple of imes before sinking, only to resurface later with a bewildered look on his face. "What the heck happened?"

Sokka saw the commotion and immediately stood beside his sister. "What's going on?"

But Katara was too focused on Aang to answer. "Aang! Get out of the water! Hurry!"

Aang doesn't need to be told twice upon seeing the huge elephant koi being dragged underwater. Using every strength he got, he started swimming towards the shore. But Aang is still about two hundred meters away. He haven't even made it half way back before the shadow loom behind him.

Both sibling gawked at the huge serpant that came out of the water with every intention of devouring the fleeing child.

Acting on instincts, both siblings moved. Katara pushed all of her water bending ability to pull the water surrounding the panicking Aang. Sokka, on the otherhand, let all of his bommerangs fly.

The huge serpant was just about to swallow the boy when pain blossomed near its face, forcing it back for just a few seconds. But it was enough time for Katara to pull Aang all the way back to shore.

Katara immediately went to see if the onk was alright the minute he reached the shore. "Aang, are you okay?"

Coughing a bit of swallowed water, Aang gave the girl a tired grin and said, "Never better."

Katara shook her head at her friends show of false bravado. She should really be angry but then she was too glad about him being fine.

"Anyway, guys, thanks for the rescue and . . .um, Sokka, why are you cursing like a drunken sailor?"

Instead of answering, the cursing teen growled and pointed a finger at the sea. Turning, both saw the the serpant trashing, turning its head from side to side trying to dislodge the single boomerang that was buried in the middle of its forehead.

"I can't believe I've lost another one!" Sokka growled. He would have said more but his danger sense suddenly went haywired. He suddenly dived forward, barely missing the thick sack that would have covered his head.

He turned around to see a sole of the enemy's shoe heading straight for his head. He bent backwards just in time to dodge it, letting the extended leg pass by within inches of his nose. He grabbed the leg during retraction, allowing him to pull himself up again. Once up, he was finally able to get a glimpse of his attackers.

There are six of them, all females. All of of them were wearing the same type of warrior armor, with a pair of golden fans as their main weapons. Each one is wearing similar face paints that somehow enhance their femininety.

He was still holding the leg of one of them. Three of them are surrounding him menacingly while two others secure the captured Aang and Katara, both of them tied up with bags covering their heads.

The warrior he was holding tried to pull herself free, but Sokka wouldn't let go. When that didn't work, she tried to kick him in the face, using his hold as her fulcrum while the three other unoccupied warrior jump at him.

Thinking fast, Sokka caught her other foot at mid air and used the left over force to swimg her around, preventing her from attacking while at the same time forcing the other three away from him unless they get hit with their own comrades.

The three wariors hesitated, just the thing Sokka had been waiting for. He let the warrior go after another swing, making her hit one of the others while he went to attack another one closest to him with two of his boomerangs.

He scowled when he found their battle fans were made of metal. Sparks flew as the one he was attacking, who seems to be the leader of the group, blocked his blades with her fans. He made several offensive slashes but the woman's skill seems just a bit better than his own. Its like she's using his own momentum to redirect his attacks.

Taking a gamble, he drove both blades on the same spot at the same time. The woman tried to redirect his attack but the power behind the attack was too much for her and her fans. When both blades met, it had cut through the opponbent's fans. The woman was so shocked that she wasn't able to dodge as the boy placed the edge of both blades between her neck, his cold blue eyes staring at her defiant brown ones, telling him to finish it.

"Enough!" Came the panicked shout of another warrior. "Surrender now or your friend dies!"

Everyone stopped. They turned to see one of the warriors holding the sharp edge of her fan againts the captured female prisoner's neck.

Sokka cursed internlly. He had no other choice but to surrender. He was just about to do just that when the woman he was battling with suddenly shouted angrily, "Kyoko! Don't you dare dishonor the name of the Kyoshi Warriors with such a cowardly act!"

"But, Suki, you're our leader! We can't let you die!" The woman, Kyoko, shouted in desperation.

"Better dead than dishonored." Suki said, steel in her voice, staring straight at her opponent's eyes. But Sokka saw something else in those bown eyes. Something different. He almost faltered but managed to keep his blade on her neck.

There was a sudden standstill. Everyone is tense at what might happened. Finally, Kyoko put away her fan, letting Katara slump back into the gound. At the same time, Sokka drop his weapons and put his hands up in surrender.

"Liar." Sokka whispered softly at Suki, making her eyes widen just before the rest of the wariors restrained him and covered his head with a sack.

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The next time the sack was taken off from his head, Sokka, Katara and Aang found themselves in the middle of a village, surrounded by people, and tied to a wooden totem pole with the statue of Avatar Kyoshi on to of it.

"By the laws of Kyoshi, you had tresspass in our lands. Not only that, you have wounded our island's guardian monster. What do you have to say for yourselves, you Fire Nation scums!" And old man said.

"B-but where not from the Fire Nation!' Aang tried to argue and Katara tried to support his clamis but these people seems to be dead set on their accusations. She even started telling them he's the Avatar but no one seems inclined to believe her words.

Sokka, on the meanwhile, was silently searching the angry crowd for a certain face. Finding her standing on the back of the crowds, staring back at him, he gave her a glare. She tried glaring back but averted her eyes away after a mere few seconds. She even looks like she was pouting.

"Aang, do some airbending." He heard her sister whispered to the boy tensely.

Aang took a deep breath and with a rush of wind he broke free of the bonds. It was almost worth getting tied up to see the villagers — including all of the warriors save for the leader — shrink back with jaws dropped as the boy shot straight up in the air, flipped over the statue of their Avatar idol, and float easily back down.

The old man's mouth worked for a few seconds before he was able to speak. "It… it's true. You are the Avatar." Then he bowed, and every watching villager did the same.

Sokka saw Suki and her wariors, particularly the ones that had attacked them at the beach, being the last to do the same. He actually scoff at seeing her face, like she ate something sour, just before bowing as well.

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"Again." Iroh bellowed as Zuko faied to avoid a hit on the shoulder.

Iroh had devised a new strategy for this training. He had six men attack his nephew simultaneously with staves while the prince dodge, divert, and block all of them with only his metal arm bands and the boomerang he got from the Southern Wolf. This exercise would allow him to expand his spacial awareness, a useful skill when facing an opponent that could throw six weapons at you from almost any angle simultaneously.

They had been at it for two hours now and so far, Zuko is having minimal success. But with each repeatetion, his dodging skills are getting better, his diverting skills getting finer, and his blocking skills getting easier. It would take a lot more painful bruise on Zuko's part but Iroh was sure his nephew will be able to master this technique in a short amount of time. Very soon, his nephew would be ready for the nest step of the training, doing it blindfolded.

Iroh stared at the sun for the moment. By the looks of it, they have about an hour of sunlight left, just enough time to provide his nephew with a coupe of more bruises.

Breathing heavily, Zuko returned to the middle of the deck, the six men with staves surrounding him. He nodded his head at his uncle to tell him he's ready and Iroh called out once more. "Begin!"

And the six soldiers attack as one.

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	5. Chapter 5

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

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**CHAPTER 5**

_Of Suki and Wrestling with the Unagi _

_---Hey! Where's the men that beat us?---_

_---In our lands, only women are taught how to fight!---_

_---I wish to learn of your fighting arts. Please teach me.---_

_---If you want me to teach you, then you have do exactly what I tell you to do. So go get change!---_

_---I'm sorry. I was treating you like a girl when I should've been treating you like a warrior.---_

---_I __**am**__ a warrior. But I'm also a girl.---_

Sokka groaned as he was awaken by the sound of someone knocking at the door of the house that the people of Kyoshi Island had loaned them. He heard his sister stumbling from her bed to open the door, allowing several girls to bring in several dishes of food for breakfast. He could hear them giggling as they left.

"Wow! Desert for breakfast! You have to try this one, Katara." He heard Aang said.

Hunger overcoming his sleep, he rose from his bed and staggered towards the dining table filled with food. He took ate several rice balls and drank a cup of tea before turning to the others and saying groggily, "Good morning."

Aang was looking at him in awe. "Wow, Sokka. I never saw anyone eat before waking up."

"My brother is just weird that way." Katara scoffed.

"Ha-ha. Very funny." He deadanned as he shoved several more pastries in his mouh. After swallowing and now fully alert, he turned to them and asked, "So how long do you guys think it woud take to resupply and start heading North again?"

"But we just got here. Why would you guys want to leave already?" Aang whined.

Sokka and Katara groaned inwardly at the monl. Sokka had been expecting it considering the huge party he people of the island held last night in the Avatar's favor. Katara just wanted to get Aang away from those giggling girls that keeps gushing over him.

"Aang, we can't stay in one place too long or else the Fire Nation will catch up to us." Katara said diplomatically.

Sokka woud have inserted his two cents in but a figure walking by outside stopped him in his tracks. Thinking quickly, he said, "I think Aang is right. We should stay at least a day more. Anyway, I have something to do. See ya." Then, he left, only to come back a second later to grab a plate of pastries before leaving again.

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Suki was late for morning practice and it's all that Water Tribe boy's fault. His words on the beach had affected her in such a way that she couldn't help thinking about it. He had managed to defeat her and question her honour. And last night, during the party, everytime she tried to make insconpicuous glare at him, he would catch her and look back. He wouldn't admit it but his deep blue eyes unnerve her very being, as if he could see right through her soul.

Also, there was whispering among the crowd about the blue eyed boy being the Southern Wolf, a new warrior that had said to have single-handedly incapacitated half an entire crew of a Fire Nation Navy ship in a span of a few minutes.

Putting away thoughts of certain blue eyed boys who may or may not be a new legend in the making, she kept rushing to the dojo. She arrive to see that most of the other Kyoshi wariors already doing warm ups.

"Sorry I'm late." She said as she walk towards the front of the other wariors. When everyone was in formation, she continued, "Today we would be practicing our group battle tactics and then review the Kyoshi Warior Codes, particularly on honorable conducts during battles so that what had occured on the beach yesterday will NEVER happen again." At that, she gave a dejected Kyoko a half lidded glare.

Kyoko, who had been standing quietly within the group, slumped her shoulders. What she did yesterday was a breach in the Code's conduct. She should have never threatened the hostage as leverage. She would have voiced her apology when a new voice came from the door.

"You're a fool if you think she would have went through slitting my sister's throat yesterday." The male voice said.

As the Kyoshi wariors turned, they saw the Water Tribe boy leaning againts the doorway looking flatly at their leader.

Said leader reacted immeditely in anger. "This place is for Kyoshi warriors only. No males allowed. Now leave."

"That's rich, coming from you." Sokka scoffed, earning a feirce glare from Suki. "The only warrior I saw yesterday is her." He pointed at Kyoko, who gave him a bewildered look.

"You're wrong! True wariors don't use such despicable tactics to gain leverage to win in battles." She muttered hotly.

"Then it just goes to show that she have such great acting skills to fool even you." He said coolly. "She bluffed her way to victory and thus prevented any loss of life on your side. Even if her bluff didn't work, she had managed to provide a distraction for you and your other warriors. Too bad you're so slow on the uptake."

Suki and the rest of the warriors were bristtling now while Kyoko tried to make herself as small as possible.

Her teeth grinding againts each other, Suki asked, "And what makes you so sure she wouldn't have gone through with the threat?"

"Her eyes. Plus, her hands weren't shaking when she held her fan againts my sister's neck. She was afraid but she have good control of her body's movement." He then invaded her personal space, his nose almost touching hers. Then he said in a low voice so only she could hear, "Your eyes, on the other hand, had begged me to let you live."

Suki gasped silently at that. She tried to deny it but what he said was true. Despite what she said yesterday at the beach while she had his blades on her neck, she didn't want to die. And this boy had saw through it.

Then, he smirk and turned his back on her and the rest of the warriors and left through the open doors, leaving Suki frozen in place while the rest of the warriors whisper among themselves, most of them already planning to spy on the Water Tribe boy.

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"Sokka, what are you doing?" Katara asked as she saw her brother witing something on a piece of paper in the dining table during lunch. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that it was a map of the island.

"Just checking out the most likely route a Fire Nation invading party would take." He said as he used an ink and brush to highlight another line on the map.

"Do you really think they would catch up to us before we leave?"

"Zuko is a tenacious bastard. He'll stop at nothing to get Aang."

"Zuko?"

"You know, that guy with the scar on his left eye at the South Pole."

"How do you know he'll be like that?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Becasue he's . . .um, er . . . hmmmm. . . You know what, I don't know how. I just do."

". . . Those weird dreams again?"

". . . yeah."

After several minutes of silence, Sokka shook her head in defeat and said, "By the way, where's our resident airbender?"

Katara scoffed as she said, "Probably showing off to his fans again. Honestly! THat Avatar business is starting to get into his head."

Seeing his sister starting to go into one of her tantrums, Sokka took an involuntary step back and said carefully, "Well, it's another reason why we should leave early."

"You're leaving already? But why?" Came sudden distressed the female voice.

Turning, both of them saw three young girls about their age standing by the door looking at them, in Sokka particularly, the shortest one with teary eyes. They were wearing normal everyday robes found around in Kyoshi Island.

"Um, who are you?" Katara asked. She remembered haven't seeing them before since they arrived.

Sokka, on the other hand, noticed something familiar about these girls. Then, his mind tried imagining them with Kyoshi armor and white face paints and finally realize who they are. "Hey, you're Kyoshi Warriors. I coudn't recognize you without your armors and make up."

"Those are not make ups! They're face paint for warriors." One girl said defensively. She's the shortest of the group with a cute sightly chubby face. She have long brown hair in twin ponytails.

"Naomi, they are designated as warrior make up. We voted on it during the last warrior meeting." The tallest one with a bored look said. She have short pagecut dark brown hair and seems to be older than them by two years.

"Is that what we talked about during the last meeting, Sayuri? I thought Suki cancelled that one so I wasn't able to attend." The last one said. He recognize her as Kyoko. She is of average height and a high horsetail style of hairdo that Sokka didn't notice before because she was wearing her Kyoshi garb before now.

"Anyway, my name is Sayuri. This here is Naomi, and this is . . ."

"Kyoko." Sokka finished, staring at the nervously fidgeting girl.

"Um, yes. Our shift was over for the day so we're free for the rest of the day. We only wear our armor duing practice and patrols." Kyoko said carefully before finally snapping. She suddenly bowed in front of the two siblings, her head touching the wooden floor. "I'm sorry! Please forgive me for my despicable actions at the beach yesterday!"

Katara, being the forgiving person that she is, reacted accordingly and said, "Please don't do that. It was all in the past so everything is forgiven." When Kyoko look at her with skeptical eyes, she turned to her brother and said, "Sokka, help me out here."

Sighing, Sokka gave Kyoko a flat look and said, "You know, in case you didn't heard my pep talk this morning, I already told your leader you're the only one I considered a warrior because of your bluff yesterday. You used what you had and did what you need to do to win. So stand up already before your big bad leader see you and blame me for making one of her cute little soldiers cry."

Looking up with slightly teary eyes, blushing, she asked softly, "Y-you really t-think I'm cute?"

Sokka actually cringed at the girl's expression. He look around and saw Sayuri and Naomi looking at him funny. He turned to his sister for help but he saw her grinning at his predicament. No help there. He turned back to Kyoko and groaned as she saw her twidling her fingers and her blush more noticeable from before.

Immediately picking up his maps and ink brush, he stood up and said, "itwasnicemeetingyouallbutigotalotofworktodolikesetuptrapsandscoutforambushpointssoiwilljustbegoingnowandmeetyoualllaterbyebye."

All three Kyoshi girls blink as Sokka left so fast as if the demons of hell are after him. Katara, on the other hand, almost died laughing. He was too busy running away that he didn't notice several other set of Kyoshi Warrior eyes watching him as he ran, particularly his, according to most of them, sturdy fine ass.

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Suki couldn't understand what it is that makes that boy so infuriating. Oh yeah. He deny her claim of being a true warior while insulting her in front of her fellow soldiers. He had managed to see through her fear. He's mere presense is making the other Kyoshi warriors turn into lovesick fools. And most of all, he disappeared right when she finally decided to confront him.

She had searched for him everywhere but there was no sign of him in or around the village. So here he is now, looking at him by the beach. But there was still no sign of him. Finally giving up, she was about to head back to the village when she saw three of her fellow Kyoshi Warriors in civilian clothes, namely Kyoko, Sayuri, and Naomi, nearby. They all had their backs on her and seem to be whispering to each other. They didn't even heard her approach.

"What are you girls doing here?" She asked as soon as she was near enough.

"EEEP!" All three girls squealed in surprised, their hands rushing into the air as they turn around.

Several seconds later, several pieces of clothing landed on Suki's head. Grabbing said clothing away from her head, she found them to be similar to what that Water Tribe boy was wearing.

"S-suki! You scared us." Naomi said nervously, face flushed.

"What the hell is going on? And what is the meaning of this?" She asked, indicating the clothes on her hands as well as several rolls of parchment in the pockets.

"W-we found them on top of the rock." Kyoko answered with a matching blush.

"We were actually looking for Sokka to ask a few questions and we just happen to came upon his clothes here but that was all. There was no Sokka in sight." Sayuri answered in her usual deadpan tone but there was no mistaking the faint reddening of her cheeks.

She was about to lecture all three for imroper behavior for Kyoshi Warriors such as them when something huge suddenly blasted out of the sea. Turning, all three saw the Unagi surfacing. But what made them gasp is the person holding for dear life on one of its two whip like antenna.

"Is that Sokka . . ." Naomi begun.

". . .wrestling the Unagi. . ." Sayuri seconded.

". . .with only a single boomerang in his mouth. . ." Kyoko thirded.

". . .wearing nothing but his underwear?" Suki finished.

All four girls blushed at the last phrase.

"What the hell does the idiot think he's doing?" Suki shouted, concern evident on her voice. She couldn't look away as she saw the boy desperately trying to hold on as the giant sea serpent trash from side to side. It was clear that the Unagi doesn't like anyone hanging onto it's antenna.

"Looks to me like he's going after his blade stuck on Unagi's forehead." Sayuri commented. She was right. Sokka keep trying to reach for his boomerang that was stuck in the middle of Unagi's head everytime he swings by.

"THat's suicide! He's going to get himself killed." Suki shouted before turning towards the other girls. "Naomi, go back to the village and get the Avatar here. And why the heck is your nose bleeding?"

Naomi whined. "B-but the Southern Wolf is wrestling with the Unagi, almost Naked!"

"Correction." Sayuri suddenly said, her voice hitching higher than normal. "Totally naked now."

_**THUD!**_

"And there goes Kyoko." Sayuri deadpanned once more as Kyoko passed out with a nosebleed.

"WHAT?" Suki turned around so fast she almost broke her neck. Sayuri was right. The Unagi's trashing caused Sokka to get his underwear caught on one of the serpent's teeth. The piece of clothe stretched and broke, causing Sokka a great deal of pain. It also caused him to loose his hold, thus allowing the Unagi to throw him several feet up in the air. Fortunately for him, he landed in the water barely twenty meters from the shore, where the water was too shallow for the Unagi's giant body to reach.

Acting quickly, Suki and the other two went to get Sokka out of the water. As soon as they got a hold of him, he spit out the boomerang on his mouth into Naomi's waiting hands.

"Ish-tuu-pid fish! I'sh gets back meh boom'reng lah-shter!" Sokka grumble drunkenly in a high voice while glaring at the submerging Unagi before finally passing out from the pain.

The three girls looked at the unconscious, naked, and definitely crazy Water Tribe boy in silence for several minutes before Suki finally said hotly, "Stop looking at his ass and get his clothes. We need to get him back to the village."

"B-but . . . it's such a NICE ass! Couldn't we savor this moment for a few more minutes?" Naomi whined.

"And he does have a decent size package for someone his age." Commented Sayuri.

"Kyoko would be so jealous missing a close up look at his naughty bits." Added Naomi, giggling.

"As well as the rest of the girls."

Suki finally had enough and shouted, "SHUT UP AND GET HIS CLOTHES! NOW!"

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"YOU IDIOTIC, BONE-HEADED, MORONIC, DUNDERHEAD! HOW STUPID COULD YOU BE? IMAGINE, WRESTLING WITH A SIXTY STOREY SEA SEARPENT FOR A SIMPLE PIECE OF SHARP METAL! NO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY EXCUSES! IF YOU EVER TRY SOMETHING SO . . ."

_"Wow! That waterbender girl sure does have a healthy set of lungs. I mean, she's been going at it with the same volume for the past hour." _Kyoko thought as she and most of the villagers sat outside the visitor's temporary home, listening into the one way argument happening inside.

Suki had locked herself in the dojo once they got back. The other Kyoshi warriors and most of the village other women were drilling Naomi and Sayuri for information. Thanks to those two and Kyoko, the entire village knew Sokka had wrestled with the Unagi and lived minutes after they stepped back into the village. And thanks to the blushes the girls, including Suki, were sporting when they arrived, they found out he was naked at the time.

"Hey! That simple piece of sharp metal is called a boomerang, thank you very much, and is essential for my fighting style. I've already lost one in the South Pole to a petty fire prince with issues and I am not losing another one to an overgrown water snake." Came Sokka's reply.

The people outside started whispering. They just got confirmation that the boy really is the Southern Wolf.

"AN OVERGROWN WATER SNAKE? THAT THING HAS A MOUTH BIG ENOUGH TO SWALLOW ONE OF DAD'S BATTLE BOAT IN ONE GO!'

"I don't think it's that big, Katara." The Avatar's voice said. "Hey, Sokka, how about I get that back for you. Riding the Unagi sounds fun."

"AANG, SHUT IT! YOU ARE NOT ENCOURAGING MY DOOFUS OF A BROTHER TO DO ANYMORE STUPID STUNTS!"

"Awe! But it really sounds like fun." Aang whined.

"I SAID SHUT IT!"

Suddenly, every water container within the village sudden erupted, spilling water everwhere.

"EEP! Yes ma'am!" The monk's voice squeaked.

And the people of Kyoshi learned something very valuable that day. Never piss off the watebender.

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_'Almost two days. Sokka had been in the island for almost freaking two days. How the hell did he manage to plan an entire seige plan in almost two days?'_ Was the thought of one Kyoshi Warrior leader as she read through the notes she had found in Sokka's pants.

When she was bringing Sokka back to the village after his encounter with the Unagi, one of he scrolls in his pocket fell open. When she saw what it was, she took all of it with the intention of helping refining his plans. But after reading all of it, she found no flaw at all. He had noted every possible scenario that the Fire NAtion may take to attack the village. He noted all primary staging point of invation and the best route to the village by highlighting it on a map, as well as the best ambush point for all invading forces. He even made a note about putting certain traps in specific places around the island to stall large enemy forces. Not only that, he deviced several escape routes for the civilians just in case the invading army is too large to fight off.

This guy. . . was a strategic genius.

Suki just couldn't believe that Water Tribe boy had managed to think and make a record of all of this in less than two days being on the island, while she, on the other hand, have lived in this island her whole life and never even thought of most of his ideas. She wanted to scream in frustration. Actually, she did scream.

She would have screamed some more if the very reason of her frustration didn't suddenly barge into her house. He was breathing heavily and have a frightened look on his face.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" She shouted.

He quickly sushed her and hissed, "Quiet! I'm hiding from your warriors because they gotten a sudden case of hero-worship. I mean, I rather face off againts the Unagi with my bare hands than a dozen and a half fangirls."

"In case you forgot, you did go and faced off with the Unagi but didn't have the decency to die. And why the heck did you decided to hide here of all places?"

"Because your place is currently the safest place for me in the entire island. My sister is in a warpath and the rest of the village thinks it's open season from me. Have you any idea how scary having a dozen and a half girls shouting at me to father their future children?"

"I'm sure those girls would have enjoyed the baby-making sessions more considering your package." Mumbled an irritated Suki quietly to herself.

"Huh? What did you say?"

"Nothing!" She said louder than she intended, her face blushing several shades of red.

"Oh, okay." He said before sitting across the low tabe in front of her. "Hey, so this is where my plans disappeared to."

Blushing for forgetting to hide said plans, Suki tried to save her dignity and said, "I know. I was merely refining such plans for you. I am, after all, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors so I decide how the island is defended."

"Hmmm. . . okay. So which of my plans did you decided to change?" He asked in genuine curiosity.

"Um, er . . ." Suki sweatdrop at that. "I-I haven't decided yet. I mean, I h-haven't read everything yet."

"Really? I assumed you would have finished going through all of these in half an hour. I mean, there's only five pages."

"I was studying each plan very meticuously so it took me longer than neccessary to read them." She said, backing up her own lie.

"Oh. Okay then."

Suki sighed in relief at that. She wouldn't want to inflate this boy's ego anymore than it's already is. "So, what gave you the stupid idea to go toe to toe with the Unagi?"

"I was trying to get back my boomerang, okay. I already lost one at the South Pole because of a hot headed Fire prince with anger management issues and it put my entire fighting style on whack."

"So it's true what they say. You are Sokka the Southern Wolf."

"I'm the who and the what now?"

"You didn't know?" She tried looking for any hints of deception in his face but found none.

"Know what?"

"Haven't you heard the rumors? Fire Nation soldiers had been talking about how you beat half the crew of an entire ship in minutes. The Fire Nation had put wanted posters of you everywhere."

"Wow! Really? Cool! Troubling, but cool."

"How can you be nonchalant about this?" She asked hotly. "Don't you realize the Fire NAtion, as well as any bounty hunter scum that wants to make a quick buck would be going after you!"

"You make it sound like it's a big thing." He waved her off. "In case you didn't notice, we are going to be traveling with the Avatar and helping him take on the Fire Lord Ozai. The Fire Nation will be coming after me with or without the price on my head."

The Kyoshi thought about it and found his reason feasable. She hated to admit it but he's actually right. Why make such a big thing about having a price on one's head if the Fire Nation would still go after you with or without it?

"By the way." He said suddenly, gaining her attention. "What's the story with that Kyoshi dude?"

Suki scowled at that and said defensively, "How dare you! Avatar Kyoshi is female! Didn't you see her statue at the center of the village?"

"It looked like a man to me. I say you got conned by your wood carver."

"Shut up! My ancestors had hired the best sculpturer in the land to make an exact replica of her during the height of her power. She was considered the most skillful and graceful fighter during her time. Our own armor and war paints are derived from her."

"She must be very ugly then since she kept hiding her face behind very thick make up."

"You are IMPOSSIBLE! You - You . . . MALE!"

"Um, am I supposed to be insulted by that?"

Finally loosing her composure, Suki made an ear splitting scream before tackling in to the floor with every intention of doing bodily harm. Not only this this boy beaten her in combat, called her a lier, denied her status as a warrior, insulted her in front of her fellow warriors, showed no respect for her island's guardian monster, and turned her wariors into boy-obsessed fangirls, but he has the gall to not even realize he was being insulted!

Both teens went rolling all over the floor, messing up everything in their path. She keeps trying to hit him while he keeps blocking every move. She tried strangling him but he managed to catch her wrists with his hands.

Both teens suddenly stop when the door was kicked open and several Kyoshi warriors stormed into the room with their battle fans at the ready.

Kyoko, who was in the lead, shouted,"Suki! We heard shouting and fighting are yo. . . WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?"

Al of them were shocked at the sight. Why wouldn't they? They had just caught Kyoshi's Island current number one stud and their esdteemed leader in a very comfromising position, with Suki laying on top of him, her legs between his hips, their hand interwined, and their faces mere inches from each other.

"We can explain!" Suki said immediately.

"Um, it's not really what it seems, girls." Sokka tried to explain.

"It seems like our esteemed leader is in the process of finally releasing all her pent up tension." Sayuri said in her usual deadpan way. But there was no denying the blush on her cheeks, in fact, all of the girls were sporting a very deep shade of red on their faces.

"No fair! Suki is keeping the Southern Wolf stud all to herself!" Naomi whined loudly, her face pure of envy.

Like a rupture in a dam, several of the girls started voicing their complaints all at the same time. Some were asking for information. Some were even making catcalls at the two. And the rest are asking if they could borow him for a few hours.

Lewd comments started flying left and right. It was just the thing Suki needed to bring her out of her shock stupor and get back her mental faculties. She immediately jumped off of Sokka and shouted, "Everyone in the dojo in five minutes! I WILL explain EVERYTHING then! Now, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE BEFORE I GO AVATAR KYOSHI ON YOUR ASSES!"

As Kyoshi warriors, they know one thing about their leader Suki, you don't cross her when she use that tone on you. So everyone started clearing out of her site and house as fast as they can.

Seconds later, she and Sokka were once again alone in her house.

"Um, I could, you know, help you explain things to them." Sokka said carefully, hoping not to provck another attack from the girl.

"Good because I'll be using you as a meat shield in case they go feral on me." She deadpanned, sighing in defeat. She gave out a groan of frustration before saying, "This is not going to end well. I just know it won't."

"Hey, nothing really happened, except for you tackling me out of the blue, that is. And why are you looking at me like that?" And she was looking. Not glaring but not just staring either. She seems to be contemplating something and he is the target.

"I'm warning you, woman! Don't make me go feral on you!" He warned when she started crawling towards him in a very predatory manner, her face sporting a scowl. He gulped upon the great view he saw of her cleavege. Her robe must have come a bit loose during their tussle.

"What the heck are you doing, Suki?" He squeaked fearfuly as she grabbed the front of his shirt.

Her scowl just got wider as she said, "You . . .are the most irritating, boneheaded, moronic man I have ever gotten to meet." Then, she kissed him, hungrily.

Due to the shock, it took a few moments before his common sense took a leave of absense to be replaced by his own repressed libido, allowing him to kiss her back with equal fevor. The next few minutes were dedicated towards the first and hottest make out session in their young lives.

Several minutes later, when breathing finally became an issue, both teens disengaged themselves from each other. One still had a scowl on her face whie the other sporting a drunken grin. Both were breathing heavily, savoring the air that they neglected moments ago.

All of a sudden, Suki cocked her fist back. She gave the still grinning Sokka a small smile before punching his lights out. He was fortunately unconscious before he hits the floor.

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	6. Chapter 6

Title: The Southern Wolf

Genre: Action/Adventure/Humor

Summary: He had been plague by dreams for years. Dreams of going to great adventures, getting into lots of trouble, battling countless enemies, and meeting new friends. He had been preparing himself for visions that may never come to be, until said visions came true.

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**CHAPTER 6**

_Seige on Kyoshi Island_

"Good news, nephew." Iroh said gleefully as he barge into Zuko's quarters.

The young prince, who had been meditating in the middle of the room, look up to him and asked calmly, "I am not going to play the sungki horn for music night."

"But you're so good at it." he whined before shaking his head. "Anyway, that's not what it's about. During alcohol shopping this afternoon for the weekly music night, several of the men have heard rumors of the Avatar being sighted at an island North West from here. But the information's credibnility went into question when they added that the Southern Wolf was also there wrestling giant serpent monsters. The men I ordered to confirm these rumors would be back within the hour."

"That's great news, uncle. Have the rest of the men prepare the ship for immediate cast off as soon as the information as confirmed." there's a bit of excitement in his voice that his uncle didn't fail to notice.

"B-but what about music night? We already bought the drinks."

"Uncle, please tell me you're not suggesting that the weekly music night is more important than capturing the Avatar, or I will be very . . . displeased."

"Of course not, my prince. I'm just thinking of the continuous existence of you and the rest of the crew."

"And how, pray tell, would a bunch of soldiers drinking while singing once a week help with that?"

"It gives us something to do while we wait for morning so that the Unagi that guards Serpent's pass doesn't sink the ship and everyone in it."

Zuko's growing anger suddenly disappeared at that little tidbit of information. ". . .Unagi?"

"Oh. It's the two hundred and fifty foot noctureal sea serpent that lives in the part of the sea that we would need to pass through to get to the island. It is said that the Unagi had sunk Fire Nation Navy ships thrice as big as this one in a matter of minutes."

". . .You could have just told me about that from the start, you know."

"Where would be the fun in that?" Iroh said gleefully, getting one over his nephew once more. "Anyway, I've already told the crew to prepare to cast off at first light tomorrow. I also sent word for reinforcement of two ships to assist us in taking the island. Feel free to join us in tonights music festival. Just don't forget to bring your zungi horn, okay. Bye bye now."

Zuko blew a brief burst of fire from his mouth after his uncle left. He realy hates whenever his uncle does that just to get a rise out of him. One day, he'll get one over the old man. One day.

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"This isn't any of my fault, you know." Suki said coolly as she placed another shirt into her travelling bag.

"I know." Katara said calmly as she sip on her tea in the middle of Suki's house.

"I mean, how was I supposed to know there were by laws in the Kyoshi Code about this sort of thing in the original text that my ancestors weren't able to print in the abbridged copies? Mum always said my own copies of the codes are much easier to understand so I never bothered to study the old texts. Why, oh why, didn't she told me my copy wasn't complete?" She slammed said scroll of abbrevriate copy of the Kyoshi Codes into her bag.

"I'm sure your mom thought such circumstances wouldn't come up."

"But it did! Have you any idea how many by laws there are in the original scroll? And worse, I found not a single loophole there that could get me out of this mess. Well, none that wouldn't have me strip of my armor and vanished from my home for the rest of my life."

"I'm sure you thought of other options."

"I did. I tried diverting their attention using your brothers plan. They spent fifteen minutes reading them and five seconds to approved all of them just so we could go back on talking about Sokka. I tried to give him away but the warriors almost annialated each other at getting the dibs on him. Could you imagine how humiliating it would be explaining to Avatar Kyoshi that her entire legacy went extinct because the warriors couldn't decide who gets to bed a single boy first?"

Katara cringed at the thought, considering they were talking about her brother. I mean, just eeewwww!

"Since he's on a very noble quest of assissting Avatar Kyoshi's current reincarnation, I have to go with him since I'm a Kyoshi Warrior myself! I mean, I'm their leader. I should be needed to stay here and defend the island. But they said helping the Avatar requires the Island's best. And that's me. And worse, I won't be allowed to come back unless I bring the next generation of Kyoshi Warriors with me. "

"I'm sure it's just a little misunderstanding. It really is not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not That Bad? Because of this little misunderstanding, I am now bethroded to the most insufferable man I have ever met."

"Believe me. I'm his sister. I know how insufferable he could be. But I also know he could be just as endearing when he needs to be."

Suki, who had finally finished all her packing, gave her future sister in law a flat stare and said, "You're enjoying this, are you?"

Giggling was the answer the waterbender had provided. I mean, Sokka getting himself accidentally engaged to Suki was really funny in her opinion.

Suki gave her another glare so Katara decided to stiffle her laughter for later, probably in front of Sokka.

Giving a sigh of defeat, Suki asked, "By the way, where exactly is the Avatar? Shouldn't we be leaving soon?"

"We are. We need to get to the North Pole as soon as possible. And I sent Aang to wake my brother up and give him the good news." Katara said merrily, enjoying the talk with her future sister in law. She could always tell her that the Southern Water Tribe tradition wouldn't allow such marriage to go through if there was even the slightest doubt on either bethroded but she was just having too much fun at the moment.

"WHAT THE HECK DO YOU MEAN ENGAGED!?" Came Sokka's familiar shout from across the village.

"Well, seems like Aang told Sokka the good news." Katara's laugher was threatening to spill out once more but another glare from Suki forced her to keep it in. "Anyway, we should start getting our stuff loaded on Appa so we could . . ."

Kyoko, in her full Kyoshi Warrior armor, burst into the door, cutting Katara's speech short. "Suki! Three Fire Nation ship is spoted heading to the island!"

Both girls suddenly stood straight at the proclamation, their faces serious. Suki immediately brought out her armor and face paint while Katara run outside to meet up with the Avatar and her brother.

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Minutes later, Sokka, Aang, Katara, Suki and half a dozen Kyoshi warriors are standing on an elevated cliff by the shore. The rest of the of the warriors are helping with the evacuation procedures of the civilians.

"That's the prince's ship alright." Aang said.

"And he brought reinforcements with him." Sokka said grimly as he look through the small telescope at the approaching three ships in the horizon. "Considering the size of the two ships flanking the prince's ship, there could be as much as a hundred Fire Nation soldiers heading our way."

"Considering their current distance, they'll arrive on shore in less than an hour." Suki calculated in her mind after she too took a look through Sokka's telescope when he passed it to her.

"This is bad. We wouldn't have enough time to set up enough traps to effectively stop a force that large." Kyoko said trying to hide her nervousness.

"Creating a fog would be useless since the sun's heat would dissipitate it immediately." Katara said.

"If only we have more time we could have implemented a few perimeter defenses around the island. We could really use a giant crossbow right now." Naomi added.

"Since it's daytime, the Unagi wouldn't be any help." Sayuri added.

"Maybe not." Sokka said suddenly, putting everyone's attention on him. He turned to his sister and asked, "Katara, remember that waterbending trick you were developing that would allow you to breath underwater?"

"The one where I bend the water to make an air bubble around my head? Yeah. Why?"

"Teach it to Aang. He would need to learn it in fifteen minutes." He told her before turning to Suki and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors. "I need you guys to make a few hit and run attacks from the beach to the village. Get as much of them as you can as long you don't lose a single one of you. All of you will be needed when we sprung an ambush at the village. Katara, after you finished with Aang, get Appa ready. We'll need to be seen as we leave so they woud go after us."

"And what will you be doing?" Katara asked concerned.

"Me and Aang would try to sink a ship of two before they reach the shore."

"By yourselves? Are you crazy?" Suki blurted out.

"Of course not. We'll be getting some help from our resident sea snake, as long as Aang here manages to pissed it far enough to have it go on a rampage." His smirk didn't assure any of them.

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"Ready the komodo rhinos. As soon as we reach the shore, head straight to the village. We'll start our search for the Avatar there. I want him and his two companions alive. If they see a white bison, either capture or incapacitate it. Under no circumstances is the Avatar allowed to escape. If the civilians flee, let them go. If they try to fight back, destoy them." Zuko ordered as he watch the island getting closer.

Iroh, who's been standing behind him, told the men to relay the message to the ther ships as well. Two waiting soldiers immediately left to do as they were ordered.

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"Remind me again what I'm doing here?" Sokka asked as he look down the very high cliff overlooking the sea.

"Because it's your plan, according to the Kyoshi Warriors, this is the most direct route to Unagi's cave, and because you volunteered for it." Aang said as he secure his staff behind him so it won't hinder him when they dive into the water.

Sokka gulp as he nodded. "Are you sure you got the bubble head trick down?"

"Sure I'm sure. I mean, I haven't tested it yet but Katara showed me all the right hand movements for it."

"Okay. So i guess we start climbing down and get the Unagi."

"No time. Those Fire Nation ships are already halfway here."

"Then how do you suggest we get down from here? Wait, what's with that smile, Aang? It's scaring me an AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Aang grinned as he dive over the cliff and followed the falling and screaming Sokka.

Moving on instincts borne into all Water Tribe people, Sokka straightened himself in midair, performing an almost perfect swan dive followed seconds later by the young Avatar. As soon as the two enter the water, Sokka grabbed Aang from behind and the monk made several hand gesture to make an air bubble large enough to cover both of their heads. He then used his knowledge in airbending to propell them deeper into the water. Soon enough, they came in front of a large underwater cave.

Sokka gave Aang a nod before pushing himself of the Avatar to swim towards the rocks just above the cave. Then, he used his airbending to push a huge amount of water torrent into the cave.

Soon enough, a huge vibration was felt from inside the cave. Seconds after that, the Unagi came out of the cave looking for the poor soul that disturbed it's rest. Seeing Aang floating several meters in fron of it, it gave an underwater roar and attacked.

That's exactly what Sokka was waiting for and he swam onto the Unagi's head before it started chasing Aang, who used his airbending to propell himself, leading the Unagi towards the approaching navy ships.

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"Sir, there's something big in the water!" shouted one shoulder who was leaning by the ship's railing.

"What is it?" Zuko asked immediately.

"Sir, I think it's the Avatar! And a monster AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" The soldier's voice was drown out when a huge serpent came out of the water pouring hundred of gallons of water skyward and into the deck of the ship.

Zuko turned immediately and saw the Avatar flying desperately away from a huge serpant using his air glider. The monk seems to be leading it somewhere. THat somewhere became apparent when the serpent almost turned one of the other boat when half its body landed on the deck of said ship in its hurry to catch the flying airbender.

"GREAT AGNI! THE SOUTHERN WOLF HAD TAMED A GIANT SEA MONSTER TO ATTACK US." Came the histerical shout of one of the soldiers.

It was just then that Zuko saw the water tribe boy standing on top of the monster's head. The boy jumped when the Unagi's head passed by the deck. As soon as the boy's feet hit the deck, he started attacking and shoving soldiers overboard.

The Unagi, irritated that the floating heep of metal had barred its way from getting the flying insect, roared out and started attacking the ship. Several soldiers were already thrown overboard. To make matters worse, the Avatar landed on the deck beside the Southern Wolf and started blasting soldiers overboard as well with airbending.

Acting quickly, Zuko ordered, "Get those men out of the water! Signal the rest to abandon ship. Get some firebenders on deck to distract the Unagi! Tell the other ship to proceed to the island and proceed with their previous orders! Uncle, take charge!"

"Zuko! Where are you going?" He asked when he saw his nephew running towards the veranda outside the helms.

But Zuko had no time to answer. He took a flying jump towards the body of the serpent. Since it was inclined at the moment, he managed to run up its back until he managed to reach the deck. He saw the Avatar and the Sothern Wolf fighting back to back againts half a dozen soldiers while avoiding the Unagi as it squish the ship with its huge body.

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"This sure is fun. NOT!" Sokka complained as he blocked another attack from a soldier who tried to spear him with a broad sword. He deflected said sword and use the soldier's own momentum to throw him over the railings.

"Do you think we've done enough damage yet?" Aang asks as he blasted three approaching soldiers with highly compressed air. Among the three, only one was blasted overboard. The other two immediately stood up and started attacking again with their fire bending.

The entire boat was starting to get bent thanks to the Unagi. It was actually hard work just trying to stay standing. Several soldiers were trying to attack the Unagi but it's thick scales were protecting it from any major harm. Said attacks were merely irritating the beast, making it crush the ship faster.

Another squeash rocked the entire boat, making both kids hang onto the railings less they go overboard.

"I think the Unagi can take it from here and WOAH!" Sokka exclaimed in surprise as he suddenly ducked along with Aang, barely missing a huge blast of flames that flew above their heads.

Turning, both saw the scarred prince with a still smoking extended fist. Behind him, two other soldiers holding spears are readying themselves to attack at their rince's orders. "You two are not getting away, this time!" Without turning his eyes away from the two, he ordered, "Get the Avatar. I'll take care of the peasant!"

He threw a blast of fire at them, forcing the two to seperate. Then, he took out the boomerang he got from him at the South Pole and attacked the Water Tribe peasant.

Sokka, shocked at seeing his own weapon heading towards him, was almost too late at blocking the attack with his own pair of blades. Luckily for him, his reflexes was faster to react.

"Dude!" He whined as he stare longingly at the lost blade in the enemy's hand. "Attacking a guy with his own weapon is So not cool!"

"Don't worry. You won't be needing any weapons soon enough!" Zuko ushed the other teen away before throwing several flames at him.

Knowing how dangerous Zuko is at mid and long range, Sokka dodge the flames as he took several steps to get close to the enrage prince. As soon as he was within striking distance, Sokka went into the offensive, attacking the ther guy before he could throw another fire blast.

Zuko dodge a slash on the head by doing a split, and then going for a sweeping kick a second later that the other boy managed to avoid by jumping up. While in mid air, he threw the two boomerang he was holding to the sides before taking out another two from their sheat so he could strike at the prince as he return to the deck.

The prince rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the twin slash that had put a deep dent on the spot he was standing on mere seconds ago. He then had to jump, avoiding the boomerang that flew underneat him, then duck low as another boomerang passed by his head as soon as he returned to the floor. Then, he threw his enemies own weapon at him, a smirk blssoming at his face as correctly deduced the other boy's reaction.

Sokka grinned when the stupid Fire Prince made a huge mistake of throwing his own boomerang at him. He immediately sheated one of the all the boomerang on his hands and caught the lost weapon with a free right hand, only to recoil in pain as the metal burn his skin as he held it. He screamed as he let the ht weapon fall into the floor. The bastard had heated the weapon after throwing it!

The pain from the burn had stunned him long enough to get close and throw a devestating kick at his head, which he tried to block with his left arm. The force of the kick not only broke said arm but also threw him several feet away. Sokka hit the floor with a thud, his right hand burned and his left arm broken.

Aang, who had just finished dispatching his own opponents, turned at hearing his friend's shout of pain. When he saw Sokka laying injure on the floor and the smug looking prince running to finish off his downed opponent, Aang immediately used his staff to blast a huge ball of compressed air at the attacking prince. Said prince was too busy savoring his upcoming victory to notice the air blast until it was too late. The air blast had hit him squarely in the chest, blowing him off his feet to hit the metal wall mercilessly on his back. He was lucky his armor protected him from breaking any bones.

When he look up once more, he saw the Avatar flying away with the injure Water Tribe boy on top of the glider. He scowled and immediatey picked up the discarded boomerang before using a nearby rope to swing back into his own ship. Just in time too since seconds later, the ship finally gave out from the Unagi's attack and started sinking into the sea. Once it was finished, the Unagi returned to the sea.

"Get this ship to shore. Now!" Zuko heard his uncle yell. The ship moved towards the island's shore. They just hope the water is shallow enough for the Unagi to attack any further.

Minutes later, Zuko felt a hand on his shoulder and his uncle's voice asking, "Prince Zuko, are you alright?"

He took several heavy breaths before answering, "I'm fine, uncle. Just got the wind knocked out of me. Where's the Avatar?"

"He flew into the island, probably to the village. The other ship managed to land thirty men on shore and are now heading there as instructed."

"Get all abled soldiers and have them take out the komodo rhinos as soon as we reach shore. I'm going after the Avatar. His so called guardian, the Southern Wolf, won't be much of a problem for the moment."

His uncle gave a grave nod and went to do what his nephew had asked. Still, Zuko wasn't able to miss the sudden grave look his uncle gave him when he mentioned defeating the Southern Wolf. Putting such thoughts at the back of his head for the moment, Zuko prepared himself to go after the main price, the Avatar.

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"What happened?" Suki asked in concern as soon as Aang landed in the middle of the village, a dozen Kyoshi Warriors and Katara surrounding them.

"Sokka! You're hurt! Let me look at that!" Katara said immediately, seeing the injuries sustained by her brother.

"Don't worry about it for now." He said, gritting his teeth to keep himself from screaming out in pain. "It's just a burn and a broken arm. I'll take care of it later."

"Don't be stupid! I bet the broken arm alone hurts like hell. We have to have that mend at east temporarily" His sister said as she started mending said arm.

"Fine." He said, letting his sister work on him as he turn to the others. "OUCH! Careful, Katara. It's broken, you know!"

"Then don't move so much!" She shot back as she small piece of wood againts his arm before wrapping it in bandages. After that, she tied a clothe around it to be used as a sling.

Sokka hissed at her minstration as he look at the Kyoshi Warriors around him. He noticed most of them, including Katara, have several burns on their clothes and skins but nothing life threatening. "How did your mission go?" He asked Suki in particular.

"We managed to incapacitate about twenty of them using ambush and traps. The remaining eight was smart enough to halt their advance at least until they get reinforcements. OW! Katara, warn me first before pouring an entire bottle of alcohol on my hand!"

"Shut it and take it like a man!" She yelled at him as she started bandaging said hand.

He gritted his teeth to held a witty retort. Now is not the time for that. "Expect at least twenty more. Me and Aang only managed to sink one ship." The girls were in awe at the proclamation. Even with the help of the Unagi, how were two boys of such young age managed to sink an entire ship of Fire Nation Soldiers? The gossip vine would be buzzing with their increadolous deeds once this is over. "Anyway, we need to get all of them inside the village before we spring the ambush. We only have to incapacitate at most half of them before Aang, Katara, and me try drawing them away. Knowing Zuko, he would order each soldier carry an injured back to his ship in a rush to go after us. And since there would be a soldier carrying an injured. . ."

". . .there won't be enough force to set a foothold in the island." Suki finished, astonished at his strategy.

Then, Kyoko added, "It would take time for them to retaliate when they leave so we would have enough time to mount some effective countermeasures for the future."

"That's brilliant." Aang, as well as most of the other warriors blurted out.

"Let just hope it works." Sokka said grimly as her sister finished with his injuries, knowing he won't be very effective as a fighter for the moment.

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Zuko gritted his teeth as he passed by his injured men on his way to the village on his komodo rhino. Ordering some of the men to get them back to the ship, he was only left with a dozen and a half soldiers. Once theyreach the village, they noticed it was empty.

Pissed off and slightly tired, Zuko ordered loudly, "Burn everything! I want the Avatar found!"

Obeying, the soldiers blasted the houses with fire. As the wooden houses started to burn, the ambush was sprung. A dozen females in warrior armors jumped from the roof, each tackling a soldier off their komodo rhinos.

A huge blast of wind came out of nowhere and startled the rhinos, making them stampede away from the village. Zuko and a few other soldiers were fast enough to calm down their rides. Then he saw a ball of water heading in his direction. He blasted it with his flames but was momentarily blinded by the by-product steam produced by the explosion.

Putting his trust on his newly acquired spacial awareness, he jumped off the rhino and kicked out at both sides, hitting the two Kyoshi Warrior that had tried to attack him.

The moment he hit the ground, he ducked just in time to avoid an iron fan that passed by his head. He performed a sweep kick but the enemy jumped over it. He was then hit in the chest with a kick that the enemy rovided while in midair.

He skidded back a few feet. As soon as he got back to his feet, he breathe out a steady flame of fire, forcing his attacking enemy to leap back, thus giving him some space. Finally getting a good look at his enemy, he saw a girl in a Kyoshi Warrior armor with iron fans on both hands glaring at him.

During the stand off, he took stock of the situation. It was chaos. His men and the island warriors were locked in an epic struggle, neither wanting to give any ground to the enemy. He caught sight of the Water Tribe girl using her water bending againts two soldiers while the Avatar was facing off five of his own.

He was just about to head for the Avatar but the girl in front of him blocked his way. He shot her a few fire blast but she managed to dodge all of them. Growling, he fired off a huge blast too fast for her to dodge. It would have hit her if it wasn't for the two boomerangs that intercepted the said blast, cutting through it and contineuing to fly at him.

He dodge as best he can but one of the boomeang still managed to cut him on the side, causing him to grunt in pain.

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Sokka grunted in pain as he used his still burned right hand to catch his returning boomerangs just before hiding behind the burning house with Appa, Momo, and Kyoko. Sheating his weapons, he turned to the lone warrior with him and said, "We're loosing ground. Once I give the signal, tel the other warriors to step up their attacks."

Kyoko gave him a nod and said sadly, "You're leaving now, are you?"

"Um, yeah. That's the plan." He said, giving her a questioning look as she started to fidget.

Suddenly, Kyoko grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him towards her for a hungry kiss. Sokka was so shock that he wasn't able to prevent her from pushing her tongue inside his mouth. The kissed only lasted fifteen seconds and Kyoko thought it was way too fast. Too bad it wasn't fast enough to prevent Katara and Suki seeing it as the two females came up from the corner.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING, SOKKA!?" Both girls said at the same time, making the kissing couple squeak in fear.

"I-i-It's not my fault!" Sokka tried to say to Katara.

While at the same time, Kyoko said to Suki, "I-I-I was j-just sayingh goodbye!"

"I don't want to know!" Katara growled as she walk by him to get into Appa's saddle.

Suki stop in front of the two and gave them her most scary glare. She turned to Kyoko first and said, "Goodbyes don't usually requires people from having their tongue explore another's husband's mouth!" before turning to Sokka and saying, "And you, we aren't even married yet and you're already cheating on me with another woman!"

Kyoko had the decency to look ashamed. Sokka, on the other hand, cried out in pain as Suki grab him by the ear and pull him up into the bison's saddle with Katara.

Suddenly, Aang landed on Appa's head with Momo and said, "Are everyone ready? Sokka, what happened to your ear?"

"Nevermind about him, Aang. Let's proceed with the plan." Katara said, her eye twitching at irritation.

"And Kyoko," Suki said suddenly, causing the other warrior to look up at her leader apologetically. Suki gritted her teeth as she witheld telling the other girl the things running in her mind about husband stealing hussies but she knew she didn't have time. So instead, she told her, "I'm leaving you, Naomi, and Sayuri in charge until I get back."

Sighing in relief that her leader didn't berate her anymore about the kissing, she gave a determined nod and said, "I won't let you down, Suki!"

"Okay then. Let's go Appa. Yip yip" Aang said.

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Zuko gritted his teeth in irritation. Throughout the chaos, he had lost track of the Avatar. He even tried looking for the Water Tribe girl but couldn't find her anywhere. Then, he heard a familiar growl. He looked up and growled as he saw the Avatar's bison flying passing overhead.

"Everyone, after the Avatar!" He ordered as he jumped onto his komodo rhino andsteering it after the escaping Avatar. Following his lead, the other soldiers abandoned thei fights to get back into their rhinos and go after the already feeing prince.

"Damn. That was one hell of a tussle." Naomi said breathing heavily.

It was very fortunate for everyone that no one was seriously injured. There were a few who recieved some burns and a couple of broken bones but nothing life threatening.

"Everyone try putting out the fire! We still got a village to save." Sayuri shouted, prompting the rest of the warriors to act.

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"Sir, the reports just came in. We have fifty four men injured, three of them critical thanks to the Unagi. Another twenty injured arrived from the raid into the island." A soldier said.

Iroh gave a sigh as he asked, "How many abled men we have left?"

"Twenty one sir, most of them engineers and ship aids. There's about a dozen soldiers ready to fight but most of them are busy helping the doctos with the injured. As you ordered, all the critically injured are transferred to the other ship. Prince Zuko still have about a dozen and a half men and komodo rhinos with him."

Iroh was impressed. It was a well planned strategy. Whoever planned the assault knew what he was doing. He didn't killed anyone, barely injuring them. Having half the men injured, the other half would be needed to help in giving them medical attention, thus leaving no one to set a foothold on the island.

Suddenly, a figure was seen flying by the wndow. Iroh and the soldiers saw it as a flying bison with the young Avatar steering it away from the island.

Thinking quickly, Iroh ordered, "Have the prince's ship ready for immediate departure. Knowing him, he's already on his way back as we speak. Relay orders to the captain of the other ship to return to base. Get those injured men back to friendly shores."

Soon enough, Iroh saw his nephew steering his komodo rhino straight back to the ship along with the other men. The soldier in front of him immediately bowwed before doing what he was told.

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"I wonder when I'll be able to get back home." Suki said sadly as she watch Kyoshi Island disappearing into the horizon from her place at Appa's saddle. She suddenly turned and gave Sokka her scariest glare. "This is all your fault!"

"Hey! I don't know what the big deal is." Sokka said in defense. "You're not exactly on Prince Jerkbender's list of priority, you know. I mean, we could always drop you off somewhere and you could travel back to Kyoshi Island on your own."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean? You're just going to leave me behind?" She asked, her posture threatening.

"Calm down, Suki. My brother isn't really that fast in the uptake."

"HEY! I'm right here, you know." Sokka said loudly. "And another thing, what's this talk about me being engage and stuff?"

"Aang, you didn't tell him?" Katara asked the monk.

Aang fidgeted and said apologetically, "I didn't have time to tell him everything, considering the seige."

"Tell me what? All he told me is that I'm engage to some girl. As if I'd just let some girl hang off me." He would have said more if the blunt end of an iron fan hadn't hit him hard on the forehead, almost knocking him out. "HEY! What the heck was that for? Can't you see I'm injured here?"

"You tell me. . .fiance!"

"W-what!? I'm engage to you?"

"As if I had a choice in the matter! If you just had the decency to let me strangle you to death that time in my house, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Are you actually hearing what you say, woman!? You were trying to kill me!"

Katara, not wanting to get involve in the domestic dispute, decided to sit by Aang on Appa's head.

"You know," Aang said suddenly, a grin on his face. "They're really starting to sound like an old married couple."

Katara look back at the arguing couple. By the looks of it, they'll be going at it for the next several hours. She matched Aang's grin with her own as she told him, "I know. Aint that sweet?"

For a moment, both benders silently look at the arguing people at the back. Then, both burst into giggles and chuckles.

Momo and Appa merely sighed at them all. Humans are such strange creatures.

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	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

_Omashu and Psychiatry_

_---They have houses that don't melt.---_

_---You have to open your eyes to the possibilities.---_

_---Great. So they get their mail on time.---_

"Welcome to City of Omashu." Aang said proudly as the great Earth Kingdom city looms ahead. Behind him, Sokka, Katara, and Suki gasp in awe. "I always use to come here to visit my friend Bumi."

"It looks amazing." Katara said in awe, staring at the huge city from afar.

"Wow. I've never been in a city this big before." gushed Suki.

"They have houses that don't melt." Sokka said in awe, sharing the other's sentiments.

Aang beamed proudly and said, "Well, come on, guys. The awesome stuffs are inside the city."

"Wait up, Aang." Katara said, halting him before he could run towards the city.

"Huh? What for?" The monk gave her a questioning look.

"It might be dangerous if people recognize you as the Avatar." She said.

"It might alert the Fire Nation of our location." Suki added. "You'll need to disguise yourself."

The monk thought it over for a moment before nodding. "But what do you want me to do, grow a beard?"

Minutes later, Aang found himself wearing a large white wig and white wiggling mustache. "This stuff itches. How do you live in these stuff?"

The subject of his question, who happens to be a ten ton bison, merely gave him a grunt in reply.

"Great. Now he looks like a male version of Gran Gran." Sokka said sarcastically.

"Well, technically, Aang is a hundred and twelve years old." Katara reasoned out, a smile on her face.

"I just hope there's a medicine store in there that sells very srong anesthesia. Sokka's whining at night is really starting to bug me." Suki added in a deadpan.

"Hey! Can't you see I'm still pretty much injured? And I got them defending your island!"

"And that's the only reason I haven't beaten your sexist ass from here to the North Pole for ruining my life! I mean, I always see myself married to a handsome, strong, dashing, and very refined gentleman with excellent manners."

"So what exactly are you trying to say, woman?" Sokka, who was in the process of picking his nose with a stick he picked up from the ground, asked.

Suki groaned in disgust. She took out her battle fans and turned to look pleadingly at Katara who, seeing what the other girl wanted, said calmly, "No, Suki. You can't kill him for being a disgusting pig since you're only engage at the moment. Once you're married, you're only allowed to maim him."

"Darn." The Kyoshi Warrior cursed. She had asked Katara to help her find some loophole in the Kyoshi code that would get her out of the engagement with Sokka after they left the island. Katara started studying the old code with her and became very proficient with the explaining the by-laws contained within the said codes.

Aang merely shook his head at them. He's starting to get used to Suki and Sokka's shouting matches ever since they left Kyoshi Island. He and Katara even started betting on the winner from each confrontation. "Let's go you young wipper-snappers! We haven't got all day!" The monk said in an impersonation of an old man's voice, using his air glider like a walking stick to better act his disguise.

The three soon followed, Suki and Sokka still glaring at each other.

Crossing a natural stone bridge across a very deep canyon, they came closer and closer to Omashu.

"You guys are going to love Omashu. The people here are among the friendliest in the world." Aang said proudly, reminescing the past.

"ROTTEN CABBAGE? WHAT KIND OF SLUM DO YOU THINK THIS IS?" Came a guard's angry voice up ahead.

All four teens saw three soldiers in green and yellow uniforms guarding the city gate. One of them was confronting a cabbage seller. They saw the said soldier thump his foot on the ground, causing the soil underneath the nearby cabbage cart to punch said cart over the canyon.

"My cabbages!" The cabbage seller shouted in despair as his cart fell off the very deep canyon.

"Friendliest in the world, huh?" Sokka asked sarcastically as he and the girls gave the disguised monk a half lidded glare.

"Um, heheh." Aang scratch the back of his neck nervously as he develop a sweatdrop. "Just follow my lead, okay." He then turned back to the walk towards the guards, the others following closely behind.

The same angry guard saw them coming and he immdiately used his earthbending ability to pick a good size boulder from the ground and float it threateningly above Aang's head. "What's your business in Omashu, old man?" The guard asked threateningly.

Aang was suddenly in the guard's face, glaring at him. "IS THAT ANYWAY TO TALK TO YOUR ELDERS, YOUNG MAN. WHY, I SHOULD JUST PUT YOU ON MY KNEES AND SLAP YOU SILY UNTIL YOU LEARN THE MEANING OF RESPECT. DON'T THINK I WOULDN'T DO IT EITHER, BOY!"

Startled, the guard backed away from the crazy old man and raised his hands in surrender as he said, "Easy there, old timer. Just tell me your name and I'll let you inside."

"It's Moonsoon . . . Theodafethotopolis . . .the Third!" Aang said in his best old man's voice. "And this are my grandkids and my grandson's affectionate fiancee."

Sokka scoff. "Affectionate? Yeah, right."

Insulted, Suki immediately went into offense and said to him, "You wouldn't know affection if it bite you in your crude and ugly ass."

"My ass is very studly, thank you very much. All your fellow Kyoshi Warriors think so too. Why else would they be fighting over it?"

"Because they don't know any better!" She shouted in aggravation.

"You're just frustrated I couldn't cuddle with you anymore since I'm injured." He snarked.

"Cuddle this you bastard!" She shouted in rage, trying to stangle the boy but Katara held her back from doing bodily harm to her injured brother.

Aang laugh nervously and tod the guards, "Um, they're usually more affectionate than this most of the time, believe me."

The guard merely gave the old man a pitying look and whispered to him, "I know of a very good marriage councilor that could help those two. Saved my third marriage. Just ask for Kei at the lower market. He's famous there."

"Um, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, sonny."

"Good." The guard said, loudly this time. "Anyway, enjoy Omashu."

The guard gave a hand signal and the wall begun to open up. As the four of them started walking towards the opening, the guard grabbed Sokka's shoulder and whispered, "You should really try to make up with that girl, kid. She's got a great pair of curves. It would be a shame to let such a nice specimen of womanhood go."

Sokka managed to hold all sarcastic comments that ran through his head and said instead, "Um, sure."

"Good lad." The guard said, giving Sokka a good luck slap on the back.

As soon as all four of them are inside the city, the stone gates closed up once again behind them.

The three newcomers had to gasp at the sight. The city was more amazing once inside.

Aang smiled at their astonishment and said in a manner similar to those of certain tour guides, "Omashu is the only city that utilizes a monorail system. Those things run everywhere in Omashu, using earthbending and gravity to transport stuffs all over the city."

"Great. So they get their mails on time." Sokka said sarcastically, still a bit miffed at the earlier confrntation with Suki.

Aang beamed. "They do get their mail on time. But my friend Bumi saw another use for them. He seems to be a bit loony at first but it just hides the fact that he's a mad genius. He always tells me to keep my mind open for the possibilities."

"He sounds like a great friend, Aang." Katara was happy for him, as shown in her smile.

"He was." The monk gave a smile of his own, before it turned mischievous. "How about we go do something fun?"

"Sure, Aang." Katara said, smiling at the monk before turning to the others. "How about you guys?"

"I think I'll pass. I wanna go find a good doctor and had my burns look at." Sokka said, indicating his bandaged right hand.

"I think I'll join you. This city seems a lot of fun, unlike spending time with a whiny Sokka." The Kyoshi warrior said.

"How about we give you a broken arm and a burned hand and see how you fair, Miss Wannabe-Warrior."

"Would you give it a rest for just one day?" Aang said in an exasperated voice.

Huffing, the bethroted teens gave a nod before turning away in unison.

"Do you need me to go with you?" His sister asked suddenly.

Sokka shook his head in negative. "Nah. I'll be fine on my own. You guys have fun. Let's meet up by the gate later for lunch."

"Well, okay. Try to look for for a supply shop for this afternoon shopping."

"Sure, Katara. Aang, make sure the girls have fun, okay."

"Don't worry, Sokka. They'll be having a blast."

"Good. See you all later." Then, he walked away.

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"Now, young man, the good news is that the burns on your hand looks worse than it really is." The doctor said as he finished bandaging Sokka's hand. "In about a week, the dead tissue would harden enough to easily peel off. Your hand would still be a bit sore by then. Do not put any pressure on it for at least another week and it would be as good as new. Your left arm, on the other hand, would heal itself in about two weeks. Whoever mend it sure knows what they're doing."

"Yeah. My sister is the resident nurse aid in our tribe. You should see her take care of frostbites, she specialize in that." He said proudly.

The clinic was situated near the lower market but the clinic itsef is on the fifth floor, giving the people inside a good veiw as well as a cozy feel of the place. There's a fire lace on the side and several flush chairs for visitors.

The old man with a sunny disposition gave out a chuckle and said, "I would very much like to meet this sister of yours. Maybe we can compare notes. Anyway, you seem a bit down when you first came in. What seems to be the problem."

"Oh. Nothing really. Just a bit of trouble with my life in general."

"Really?" There was a sudden spike of interest in the doctor's voice. "Why don't you have a seat at one of my more comfortable chairs and tell me about it. Maybe I can help."

"Thanks, doc. But I don't want to bother you than I already have."

"Nonsense, my young friend. Doctor Kei is always ready to listen to people's troubles."

"Um, okay. Sure." Sokka said unsurely but the doctor seems adamant. Besides, this doctor is a stranger. It's not like he's going to pour his heart out on a complete stranger.

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"Two years. Two freaking whole years. I mean, I understand why he had to leave in the first place with helping the Earth Kingdom in the war and all but couldn't he even spend a few minutes to write and send a letter to his waiting family back home? We're his freaking children. We already lost our mother in the war, we wouldn't want to lose our father as well." Sokka kept going as he pour his soul to the old doctor.

'Patient has parental issue with his father.' The doctor wrote.

Doctor Kei listened patiently on his fushed chair, a scroll and ink brush in his hands. He took a glimpse of his new patient laying down on the flush chair, his right arms on his stomach, his eyes staring at the ceiling. He had the most interesting stories to tell. Living in the South Pole; his childhood; living through Fire Nation raids; loosing his mother; seeing his father left for the war; taking care of the tribe and his sister. . .

'Patient was forced to grow up faster than he should due to parental abandonment as well as a subconscious sister complex.''

. . . finding a new friend inside an iceberg; meeting with a prince with anger management issues. . .

"Tell me, Sokka, how did you feel when you save the prince's life?"

"Well, first I felt so stupid for purposely loosing my boomerang to that jerkface. I mean, he was going to attack my village and take away my new friend. I sholdn't be bothered if he gets hurt or not, right? But when I saw him falling, something inside me just snapped. My body moved before my mind caught up with it."

"How do you think you would feel if you had let him die?"

"I don't really know." But his grimanced told the doctor all he needed.

'Patient have a subconscious sacrament to life and consciously and subconsciously prevents himself from taking any.' He wrote at the scroll, adding it to the list of other things the doctor had already wrote in there about the young man. "Please tell me more."

Sokka told him about visiting his new fiend's home and finding it desecrated.

"So did you feel any resentment when you were helping put to rest a fallen enemy despite knowing it was their fault that your friend's home was desecrated?"

"Not really. I mean, they were already dead."

"I see. Please continue."

Sokka told him about his time in Kyoshi island.

"Is it the first time you had meet females of the same age rather than your sister?"

"Um, yeah. I tell you, girls are strange and scary, my sister included."

Doctor Kei nodded and wrote, 'Patient have no prior experience with dealing with females of possible companionship age.'

Sokka told the doctor about Suki.

"So neither of you wanted the engagement but neglecting it is not an option for the girl."

"That's right. I mean, I'm from the Water Tribe. Why should I care for rules of a place I didn't even grew up on?"

"Are you planning of telling her that?"

"And risk getting killed by that crazy woman while I can't fight back? I aint that suicidal."

Then, Sokka started telling the doctor about his dreams, at least as much as he can remember. Finding the Avatar; meeting the prince; leaving home; The Sothern Air Temple; Kyoshi Island; Suki. He told the doctor what should have happened rather than what had actually occured.

"Do you believe this dreams of yours was the catalyst that changed such events?" Doctor Kei asked.

"I know they are. I mean, in my dreams, I was useless. I saw so many things that could have gone better if I wasn't such a burden in the first place. That's why I started training myself ever since those dreams started."

"Uh-huh." The doctor nodded as he wrote, 'Patient could possibly have latent psychic abilities and suffers from low self esteem but is willing to work for it.'

The doctor is genuinely excited. He now have, in his office, Sokka of the Southern Tribe, better known as the Southern Wolf. He'd never had a patient with so many flaws and such deeply rooted personal principles. He's getting a glimpse on the mind of a newly rising legend in the making, his flaws, his strength, his true persona. His practice would bloom once words get out that he had the Southern Wolf as a patient. Of course, being a medical professional, his work ethics wouldn't allow him to divulge anything that has been talked about in this room.

"Now then, Sokka, on my professional opinion, you are a hard working young man forced to grow up faster due to the responsibilities your father had shouldered you with at a young age, which you secretly hate him for. You hate wars and had decided to end it by leaving home to assist the Avatar. You care for your sister very much and you use her as a comparison to other females of the same age bracket that you meet, which isn't really healthy socially speaking. Also, I believe your dreams of the future are a result of your mind's dormant psychic abilities. Considering the way things are moving in parallel with your dreams, you should try utilizing such rare gifts of foresight to alter things for your advantage."

Sokka blinked a couple of times at the doctor's analysis. "I don't know, doc. Me, psychic?"

"Hmm. You're right. We shold at least try to do a few experiments to make sure. Tell me, Sokka, what happened to you in you're dreams at your first visit in Omashu?"

"Well, Aang talked about his old friend that he always visits here. He convinced us to go on a ride down the monorail and got arrested for it by the king."

Just then, a shout came from outside the window. Turning, both saw Aang, Katara, and Suki riding down the monorail like a giant slide. Suki was screaming like a little girls, tears fowing down her terrified eyes.

Both blinked for a few moments at the sight until the Avatar and his friends disappeared from sight.

Sokka finally found his voice and said, "Um, yeah. Just like that."

"See. You do have a latent psychic ability to see the future. What do you think would happen next?" The doc asked excitedly.

"Um, in my dream, we wreck a cabbage cart, get caught, given a feast by the king, put into a newly refurnished dungeon that used to be bad, held as a hostage with expanding rock candy while the king gives Aang some tests that is really meant to teach Aang a lesson in diverse thinking."

"Hmm. Yes. The king is known for doing stuff like that." Doctor Kei nodded. "Anyway, since your presence wouldn't be needed for the moment, would you like to stay for the night?"

"That's very gracious of you, doc. By I don't want to be a bother."

"Nonsense. I would really like to continue our talks. I rarely meet a more interesting patient like you for a while and would appreciate helping me with my practice in the new branch of medicine I'm trying to introduce to the world."

"What new branch is that, doc?"

"Psychiatry."

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"No offense to your friend, Aang, but that Bumi is seriously freaking mad." Suki said as she, Katara, and Aang finally left King Bumi's palace, heading towards Omashu's gate. She was still a bit miffed at being encased in rock candy. At least the king allowed them to take a shower before they left.

"None taken, Suki. Bumi had been always like that." The monk said, smiling at the thought of his old friend and the lessons he learned from said friend.

"I hope Sokka didn't get into any trouble searching for us yesterday. He must have been real worried." Katara voiced out.

"I just hope he doesn't find out about the ride we took yesterday. I'm never gonna live that down." Suki groaned.

"And I'll make sure you don't, either." Came Sokka's smug voice from behind them.

Turning, they saw Sokka there smiling at them with a large sack hanging on his left elbow. "Had fun sliding down the monorail?" he asked, giving Suki a nasty smirk.

Quickly going on a defensive, Suki snarled at said, "Why don't we just forget the whole thing and I don't break your other arm?"

Looking at her, Sokka knew she wasn't kidding. But he wasn't about to back down, yet. "How about you become my personal servant and I don't spread the news of you screaming like a little girl down the monorail?"

Seeing the upcoming fight, Katara immediately put heself between the two and said diplomatically, "How about neither of you mention anything about it or else I'll be spreading that news around as well as Sokka's potty training disaster and Suki's dream talkings at night?"

Both Suki and Sokka gasped at the threat. "You wouldn't dare!" both said in eery unison, fear in their voice.

"Am I?" the waterbender asked smugly.

"Fine!" Both said.

Aang was awed at the scene. Who knew Katara would be so good at blackmail?


End file.
